The Psychology of the Christian Life 



The Psychology of the 
Christian Life 



A Contribution to the Scientific Study 
of Christian Experience and Character 



By 
HORACE EMORY WARNER, M. A, D. D. 



WITH INTRODUCTION BY 

JOHN R. MOTT, LL.D. 




i 

New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1910, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



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New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue 
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 



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To my Wife 
Mary Williams Warner 

whose beatitiful and self-sacrificing life 
has been a perpehcal object-lesson in 
the Life here tender study \ and whose 
words of sympathetic appreciation have 
been a perpetual inspiration in the 
labour of years involved in the 
preparation of the discussion to follow. 

These Pages 

Are Affectionately Inscribed 



Preface 

It is desirable that a few preliminary facts be 
in the mind of the reader before his perusal of 
the following discussion begins ; hence a brief 
preface. 

It is not the purpose of this work to be a psy- 
chology of religion in general. As the title 
seeks to indicate, it is the endeavour 
Psychology of f the writer to cover only the 

Christian Life Only. - ^_ . , 

phenomena ol the Christian life, a 
distinct phase of the religious life of mankind, 
in its inner and outer aspects. There is, there- 
fore, no attempt to embrace abstract and univer- 
sal religious phenomena except as such phenom- 
ena form a part of the Christian life and then 
only in their specifically Christian phases. The 
familiar term, the Gospel, is repeatedly used as 
the one most comprehensively expressing the 
body of truths maintained as essential by evan- 
gelical people. The term, having so definite a 
content in Christian terminology, is very sus- 
ceptive of translation into acceptable phraseology 
of a most general nature, divested of everything 
distinctively Christian and more pleasing to the 

7 



8 PKEFACE 

strictly scientific psychologist ; but such general 
interpretation of the word, consisting of a diffu- 
sive paraphrasing of its content, is not to the 
author's purpose and hence the simpler form is 
retained as preferable for the specific area of 
treatment contemplated in this discussion. At 
that point where the consideration of distinct- 
ively Christian phenomena properly ends there 
this endeavour deliberately ceases. Others 
undertake the harmonization of these phenom- 
ena with the general religious phenomena of 
the race, but such procedure forms no part of 
this treatise ; this is exclusively a psychology of 
the Christian life. 

This does not purport to be a treatise present- 
ing merely a disinterested discussion of phenom- 
ena, without definite conclusions 
a Treatise Having a reached or positive positions taken. 

Distinct Objective. . . . ir 

Its aim is to show that an intelli- 
gent study of all the facts embraced in the field 
outlined leads to one inevitable culmination : the 
postulation of supernatural Origin to specific 
psychical processes involved in Christian ex- 
perience, constituting the experimental Christian 
life a distinctively supernatural life, — it being 
expressly understood that this supernatural 
Origin is not disorderly or capricious but 
evidently acting under some spiritual order well 
beyond all range of the natural order with which 



PREFACE 9 

we are familiar. Such supernaturalistic view 
seems to the author to be the only position ten- 
able, and this conviction gives purpose and form 
to the entire discussion. 

It has not been the design to present a purely 
didactic treatment, prepared in the sole interest 
Admission of of technical psychological science. 

Material Excluded mi n . 

by Technical I he purpose avowedly contem- 

science. plates a Christian psychology of the 

Christian life. Such a psychology admits sources 
of material as valid which general psychological 
science rigidly excludes. A so-called Christian 
psychology which rejects the validity of Scrip- 
tural insight as a source of reliable information 
in the psychical area is ?, positive misnomer. A 
truly Christian psychology is a psychology in- 
cluding among its admitted elements material 
recognized as distinctively Christian in its es- 
sence and permeated by a dominating Christian 
spirit, a spirit both devoutly reverential and also 
scrupulously exact in conformity to essential 
scientific method. It is hoped, in this way, to 
provide a practical help to the unscientific reader 
in the clarifying of the processes of Christian 
eiperience and the establishing of the true 
relationship between that experience and its re- 
sultant conduct in the formation of Christian 
character. 

There is no attempt here to go into the abstruse 



10 PREFACE 

metaphysical discussion of the tripartite division 
of the human being. Differentiations between 

Needless Metaphys- the Physical, psychical and Spirit- 
ual Distinctions ual have gone to excessive, some- 

Omitted. . . ' 

times ludicrous, lengths of specula- 
tion in the endeavour to elucidate such division. 
The practical consciousness of men readily draws 
the distinction between the physical and mental 
elements of their being ; but that consciousness 
knows no differentiations between soul and spirit. 
Ordinary consciousness covers the activities of 
both soul and spirit with no discernment of es- 
sential distinction. Plain consciousness per- 
ceives an ordinary thought-action and a spiritual 
conscience-action as alike activities of the one 
undivided inner being. For the practical pur- 
poses of this treatment the author follows the 
lead of ordinary consciousness and seeks to avoid 
the introduction of confusion in thought arising 
from the use of close philosophical distinctions 
even in the interpretation of Scriptural terms 
not clearly understood. The writer has used 
the words, mental, psychical and spiritual as 
practically synonymous and interchangeable. 
The broader meaning of these terms, as given 
by our best lexicographers, warrants this 
use now permeating all psychological dis- 
cussion. 

This treatise does not assume to be either ex- 



PREFACE 11 

haustive of the subject or final in many of its 

conclusions. On the other hand, it aspires to 

be merely an introduction to a 

Introductory to 

coming christian vast field of distinctively Chris- 
inqmry. ^^ j n q U j r y now De j n g opened by 

general psychological science and a recognition 
of fast-appearing materials, which are vitally re- 
lated to the experimental Christian life and 
which must be properly assimilated by the 
system of Christian thought if the warmth and 
vigour of aggressive piety are to be maintained in 
our civilization. 

Too much recognition cannot be given to the 

work that has been done in very recent years in 

reputable psychological research 

Outgrowth of Re- . . 

cent Psychological and the aid derived therefrom 

Research. .1 1 .i • n • • • •. 

throughout this discussion in its 
treatment of its distinctive branch of the gen- 
eral subject. Two decades ago such an attempt 
as this would not have been made. The entire 
point of view is the outgrowth of the world's 
latest thinking. In the immediate field, which 
the writer aims to cover, research and literature 
are still comparatively meagre. Acknowledg- 
ment is gladly made of kindly suggestions by 
sympathetic and critical friends with whom 
both the field and form of the discussion 
have been canvassed. This work shall have 
fulfilled its aspiration if it be admitted as 



12 PREFACE 

an humble forerunner and herald of coming 
achievements in this important field in the in- 
terest of the most intelligent and forceful Chris- 
tian living. 

Horace Emory Warner. 
Denver, Colorado, 



Introduction 

A few years ago a prominent educator pre- 
dicted that the two great battle grounds of re- 
ligion in our generation would be in the realm 
of biology and in the realm of personal religious 
experience. The latter field in particular has 
become the subject of special investigation and 
study. In no other department of religious 
knowledge has there been, during the past dec- 
ade, greater development of interest as shown 
by the production of scientific works on this 
and related subjects, by increased popular dis- 
cussion on lecture platforms, in conferences and 
in periodical literature. 

" The Psychology of the Christian Life," 
therefore, appears at a most favourable time. 
There have been different works which have 
considered the religious consciousness and phe- 
nomena as a whole, but so far as we know this 
is the first comprehensive and detailed treat- 
ment of the psychology of Christian life and 
experience. It is at once thoroughly evangelical 
and modern. It is loyal to the essential points 
of the Christian faith, and yet affords thorough, 
satisfying answers to many questions which a 
scientific age has come to regard as unanswered, 

13 



14 INTRODUCTION 

if not unanswerable. While the treatment is 
genuinely scientific in method and spirit, the 
manner of presentation is sufficiently popular to 
meet the requirements of the general reader. 

The author is so well qualified for his task as to 
justify the confidence of his readers in his proc- 
esses and conclusions. He has brought to his 
work a mind which has had the best modern 
educational advantages and he has kept abreast 
of research and discussion on the subject con- 
cerned. Above all he has had the absolutely 
invaluable corrective of a long and fruitful 
career in the Christian ministry. It was my 
privilege as a schoolboy to be for years under 
the direct and helpful influence of his ministry, 
and for a quarter of a century I have been in a 
position to observe his work in different parishes. 
It has been characterized by remarkably 
thorough and constructive work and by solid 
and enduring results. His whole life has been 
spent, therefore, in what might be called the 
laboratory of Christian observation and expe- 
rience. He has been brought into helpful, con- 
tinuous relation to thousands of persons of 
different ages and temperaments, of various 
stages of intelligence and culture, of widely 
differing religious views and experiences. In 
all this work his aim has not been academic or 
professional, but intensely serious and practical, 



INTRODUCTION 15 

— the bringing of Christian truth to bear upon 
the lives of men to help meet every experience 
of the human life and relationship. 

There is a tremendous advantage in thus ac- 
quiring and possessing first hand knowledge in 
the laboratory of personal religious experience. 
Too much writing and speaking on such sub- 
jects has been based on second hand informa- 
tion, or, when derived at first hand, upon 
abnormal experiences or data gathered by the 
question-blank methods, which, compared with 
the thorough processes of the author of this work, 
are superficial and unsatisfactory. The man to 
write on the psychology of the Christian life is 
the man who is not only qualified by education 
and temper to appreciate and employ the best 
modern methods, but who also has devoted long 
and full years face to face with the whole range 
of the facts of normal, as well as abnormal, re- 
ligious experience in sincere, self-forgetting 
effort to meet the needs of living and of dying 
men. Judged by this test the author is well 
qualified to be a safe guide. 

John R. Mott. 
New York. 



List of Diagrams 



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Of the Inner Life 

General Diagram of the Inner Life Facing page 28 

Diagram I, The Psychical Field 
Diagram II, The Antecedent States . 
Diagram III, The Cataclysmic States 
Diagram IV, The States under Christian 
Nurture ..... 

Diagram V, The States in Ascent 

Of the Outer Life 
General Diagram of the Outer Life " " 296 

Diagram VI, The Personal States . " " 328 
Diagram VII, The Evangelistic States u " 352 
Diagram VIII, The Sociological States " " 368 

Of the Inner and Outer Life 

Diagram IX, A Vertical, Transverse Sec- 
tion of the Life of the Christian " " 388 



Contents 

BOOK I 

The Inner Life 
Facts in the Foreground . . 29 

A Needless Dread. 

Personal salvation beyond all cost — Critical handling 
repelled — Unfair methods beget dread — All such 
dread needless. 

A Chosen Instrument. 

Arrival of Christian psychology — Recognition must 
be given it — Providence forecasts its mission. 

A Fearless Method. 

Necessary to dissolve illusion — Simple loyalty to 
truth — Alone worthy of Christian psychology. 

A Measureless Benefit. 

In the perplexities relieved — In the errors eliminated 
— In emancipation conferred — In accumulating 
future good. 

PART I 

The States of Christian Experience 
I. The Field of Experimental States . 49 

The Range of Psychic Activity — Full consciousness 
— Partial consciousness — Subconsciousness — Its 
recent verification — Region of Consciousness — 
Content of consciousness — This region in diagram 
— Region of Subconsciousness — Meaning of 
term — This region vital in Christian experience — 
Demands increased recognition — Experimental 
contents of subconsciousness — This region also in 
diagram — Consciousness and Subconsciousness — Ex- 
act line of cleavage not located — Each contributes 
to the other — First task of Christian psychology — 
These interchanges in diagram. 

17 



A 



18 CONTENTS 

II. The Antecedent States . . .66 

Dawn of consciousness — Two earlier stages : (i) 
Readiness of perception — (2) Eagerness of recep- 
tion — State : Predisposition — Origin in the subcon- 
scious — The Holy Spirit the source — His work: 

(1) Illumination — (2) Initial impulse — This prep- 
aration typical — Causal relations of states — State : 
Assent to the Gospel — Points of formulation : (1) 
Divine source acknowledged — (2) Right to obe- 
dience admitted — Issues in balance — State : Re- 
fusal to Obey — Steps in formulation : (1) Rise 
of temptation — (2) Act of disobedience — (3) Re- 
sistance to God — State : Sense of Sin — Defining 
conditions: (1) Condemnation — (2) Intent of re- 
turn — Arrival at Cataclysmic States. 

III. The Cataclysmic States ... 85 

Salvation through cataclysm — Variations in states — 
Purpose in this treatise — Needed cataclysm 
awaited — A chasm in conscious states — Rise of 
conviction for sin — From the subconscious — By 
the Holy Spirit — Scriptural indications : Case of 
Ahasuerus — At Pentecost — Christ's affirmation — 
Present-day corroboration — State : Conviction for 
Sin — Three focal points : (i) Heinousness of sin 
— (2) Burden of guilt — (3) Fear of effects — A 
crucial and pivotal state — Alternative issues — 
State: Repentance — Three elements: (1) Sor- 
row for sin — (2) Abandonment of sin — (3) 
Return to God — State : Covenant for Service — 
Two component acts : (1) Dedication of self — 

(2) Dedication of belongings — State : Acceptance 
by Faith — Three stages : (1) Application of 
promise — (2) Cessation of effort — (3) Assertion 
of fulfillment — Climax of seeking. 

IV. The Cataclysmic States (Continued) 108 

Chasm in conscious states — Process continued in the 
subconscious — Traced by light of inspiration — 
Responsive occurrences in the subconscious : (1) 
Forgiveness for sin — (2) Cleansing from sin's im- 
purity — Distinct from forgiveness — Its method 



CONTENTS 19 

unknown — (3) Regeneration : Its need — Not 
elsewhere accomplished — Wrought in the subcon- 
scious — (4) Adoption — State: Newness of Life — 
Points of definition : (1) Loss of condemnation 
— (2) Peace — Joy — (3) Transformed conditions 
— (4) Filial sense — The witness of the Spirit — 
Consummation in conversion. 

V. The Cataclysmic States (Continued) 126 

New-born soul under ordeal — State : Vacillation — 
Steps in development : (i) Ignorance of new life — 
(2) Surprise and yielding — Absent in very rare in- 
stances — (3) Rise of old tendencies — (4) Oscilla- 
tion between victory and defeat — Another pivotal 
stage — State : Effort for Uniformity — Acts in- 
volved: (1) Confession of unsteadiness — (2) Ded- 
ication for higher service — (3) Claim of power 
by faith — Process again in subconscious region 
— Response to faith: (1) Forgiveness for vacilla- 
tion — (2) Gift of power — (3) Fullness of God — 
State : Possession of Power — Points of definition : 
(1) Exultant joy — (2) Uniformity of resistance 
— An abiding peace — (3) Unction for work — 
— Cataclysmic states not normal — Normal states 
under Christian nurture. 

VI. The States Under Christian Nur- 

ture 143 

Earlier aspects of Christian nurture — The soul God's 
child at birth — Experience opened under Chris- 
tian nurture — Sin-induced states absent — Two 
antecedent states present — State : Covenant for 
Service — Dedication adapted to conditions — State : 
Acceptance by Faith — Response in the subconscious 
— Phases of that response: (1) Closer attitude of 
approval — (2) Completer adjustment in fellow- 
ship — (3) Intenser parental acknowledgment — 
State : Rightness of Heart — Defining points : ( 1) 
Peace — (2) Holy conditions — (3) Filial sense — 
Witness of the Spirit — State : Vacillation — Rise 
of sinful tendencies — Subsequent states as in cat- 
aclysmic series — Advantage in Christian nurture. 



20 CONTENTS 

VII. The States in Ascent . . .159 

Two psychical movements: (i) Horizontal — (2) 
Ascending — Intricacy of this rrovement — Initia- 
tive in divine uuction — State : Revelations in Serv- 
ice — These revelations specified: (1) Exactness 
of promise — (2) Abundance in response — (3) 
Depths of the Word — (4) Possibilities of faithful- 
ness — Such revelations continuous — State : In- 
crease of Faith — Directions of increase : (1) 
Intelligence — (2) In specialization — (3) In 
intensity — (4) In persistence. 

VIII. The States in Ascent {Continued) . 173 

Faith without initiative — Response in the subcon- 
scious — State : Augmentation of Energy — Points 
of definition: (i) Reduction in struggle — (2) 
Inclination to larger tasks — (3) Sense of reserve 
— State : Expansion of Capacity — Shown by 
changes: (1) Ease of possession — (2) Facility 
in use — (3) Craving for infilling. 

IX. The States in Ascent {Continued) . 183 

Capacity incapable of self-filling — Response in the 
subconscious — State : Enlargement of Life — 
Places of manifestation : (i) Area of correspond- 
ence — (2) Range of affections — (3) Altitude of 
impulses — Final culmination of states — State : Ap- 
proximation to the Christ-spirit — Forms of this ap- 
proximation : (1) In comprehension — (2) In 
acquirement — This ascent to continue forever. 

PART II 

A Study in Origins 

I. The Greater Task of Christian 

Psychology 197 

Facing the facts — A new basis of apologetics — It is 
not reliability of history — It is not credibility of 
miracles — It is not fulfillment of prophecy — It is 
not benefits to mankind — It is not superiority 
among religions — These tributary, but not basal 



CONTENTS 21 

— The new basis : God in Experience — Two 
propositions: (i) God beneath experience — Prep- 
aration needed for demonstration — (2) Psychic 
reaction inadequate — Occasion for this proposi- 
tion — Christian psychology to prove propositions 
— This its greater task. 

II. The Phenomena in Question . .215 

Located in the subconscious — Three phenomena- 
clusters: (1) Origin of conviction — (2) Origin of 
conversion — (3) Origin of possession of power 
— Beyond all direct observation — Their study 
possible by two methods : (1) By inference — 
(2) By inspiration — Review of course thus far — 
Statement of further purpose. 

III. The Availability of Psychological 

Inference 227 

Inference a legitimate method — Three admissible in- 
ferences : (1) Forces at work in subconscious 
region — (2) They operate under fixed laws — (3) 
Manifest intelligent qualities — Reliable inferences 
cease — Four erroneous inferences : (1) Outcome 
of adolescent change — This inference clearly un- 
warranted — (2) Parallel phenomena prove these 
reactive — Facts discredit this inference — These 
phenomena a class by themselves — (3) Incapacity 
proves these phenomena structural — Genuine in- 
capacity very rare — Incapacity warrants no such 
inference — (4) Origin in hypnotic suggestion — 
Analysis of hypnotic condition — Deplorable re- 
sults of hypnotic action — Inference shown to be 
erroneous — Available inference limited. 

IV. The Reliability of Scripture In- 

sight 250 

Demand for evidence proper — The problem stated 
— Scripture insight open to test — Four credentials 
stated : (1) The diagnosis of psychical disorder 
— The psychical evolution of sin — Disastrous 
effects of sin — The origin of spiritual disorder — 
(2) The prescription for relief — Three steps pre- 



22 CONTENTS 

scribed — Abandonment of sin — Committal to obe- 
dience — Act of acceptance — (3) The definition of 
processes in relief — The passing of sin — The re- 
adjusting of powers — The ascendancy of new life 
— (4) A familiarity with conditions involved — 
Reliability within conscious states demonstrated. 

V. The Ultimate Power, The Holy 

Spirit 266 

Proven accuracy of Scripture insight — Valid con- 
clusion from such accuracy — Scripture insight 
penetrates into the subconscious — Such insight 
trustworthy — The crucial question — The answer 
of Scriptural insight — Elimination of divine Per- 
sonality fatal — Survival of formalism and theism 
— Classified grouping of passages embodying 
Scripture answer : ( I ) The Holy Spirit abiding 
in psychical field — (2) The Holy Spirit beneath 
good impulse — (3) The Holy Spirit alone regener- 
ates — (4) The Holy Spirit confers life and power 
— (5) The Holy Spirit transforms in Christian 
growth — Deliverance of Scripture insight accepted 
and final. 

VI. The Wonder and Glory Undimin- 
ished 285 

Supernatural factors unimpaired — Wonder abides 
unabated — The glory shines undimmed : (1) In 
God's presence — (2) In God's fellowship — (3) 
In God's co-working — (4) In God's conferred 
likeness — Resultants from divine origin — Vital 
factors of inner life in tact. 

BOOK II 

The Outer Life 

The States of Christian Character 

I. The Rise into the External . . 297 

Inner life irrepressible — Must have exact external 
counterpart — Such counterpart to be formulated 
— Formulation by Scripture and experience — 
Two hemispheres in character — Application to 



CONTENTS 23 

Christian character — Christian psychology and 
the outer life — That psychology must formulate 
that outer life — Disparities in so-called Christian 
character — Arise from two mistakes : (i) No re- 
quired experience — (2) No accredited standard — 
Remedy in exacter method. 

II. The Formation of Character States 311 

Process of character formation — Stages culminating 
in Christian character: (i) Initiation by the 
Holy Spirit — (2) Appearance of conscious states 
— (3) Issuance in conduct — (4) Subjection to ob- 
servation — (5) Induction of character states — 
View of conduct in two relations : (1) To its 
causes — (2) To its results — Formation of charac- 
ter states — Definition of Christian conduct neces- 
sary — Conduct defined, states of character follow 
— Method of treatment — Vision of balanced char- 
acter needed — Specialized character an error — 
Three series of states : (1) The personal states — 
(2) The evangelistic states — (3) The sociological 
states — Series to be studied in detail. 

III. The Personal States . . . 328 

All Christian states homogeneous — Movement 
from cause to effect — Conduct : Prayer — Bible 
study — Worship — State of character : Devout- 
ness — Conduct : Clean actions — Pure words — 
State of character : Purity— Conduct : Need 
sought — Need served — Cheer diffused — State of 
character : Kindness — Conduct : Considerateness 
— Tenderness — State of character : Gentleness — 
Conduct : Wrong ignored — Good returned — 
State of character : Forgiveness — Conduct : Irri- 
tation resisted — Manner Unruffled — State of char- 
acter : Patience — Conduct: Control of Self — 
Abstinence from wrong — Moderation in right — 
State of Character : Temperance — Conduct : 
Loyalty to righteousness — Consistency — Reli- 
ability — State of character : Integrity — Conduct : 
Activity — Progressiveness — State of character : 
Ambition. 



24 CONTENTS 

IV. The Evangelistic States . .351 

Personal states elementary — Evangelistic states 
derivative — Conduct : Anxiety for souls — 
Specific concern — State of character : Solicitude — 
Conduct : Inability conceded — Resort to God — 
Reliance upon God — State of character : Inter- 
cession — Conduct : Search for hold — Forging of 
links — Drawing towards Christ — State of charac- 
ter : Influence — Conduct : Invitation to accept — 
Pleading to receive — State of character : Appeal — 
Conduct : Salvation exalted — Cost uncounted — 
All to Save — State of character : Sacrifice. 

V. The Sociological States . . 367 

Sociological conduct — Origin in experience — Issues 
in states of character — Conduct : Condemnation of 
wrong — Untiring opposition — State of character : 
Revolt — Conduct : Help for suffering — Work of 
alleviation — State of character : Relief- — Conduct : 
Location of injustice — Firmness in exposure — 
Fidelity in eradication — State of character : Re- 
moval — Conduct : Customs revised — Harm elimi- 
nated — Uplift substituted — State of character : 
Reformation — Conduct : Institutions remedied — 
Institutions created — State of character : Recon- 
struction — Conduct : Citizenship exemplified — 
Ideals diffused — Power applied — State of charac- 
ter : Redemption. 

VI. The Reaction from the External 388 

Three functions of conduct — The third only, here 
considered — Reflexes from conduct vital — Two 
. view-points : (i) The structural effects on psy- 
chical faculties — Those faculties shaped — Balance 
given to inner life — (2) The functional effects on 
psychical perceptions — Intensified convictions — 
Clarified vision — Possibility in such reaction — 
Action and reaction in cooperation — Future of 
Christian life estimated. 

Index 397 



BOOK I 
The Inner Life 



Explanation of Diagrams of the Inner Life 

Diagrams II to V 

The two black parallel lines, extending from end to 
end of diagram, mark the division between the conscious 

and the subconscious regions. The sec- 
Diagram ° Ur ^ tions in black, in and immediately above 

these lines, indicate the successive states 
of experience occurring in the region of consciousness. 
The grouping in subdivisions, arising from each of these 
sections or states, indicates the points at which these states 
are formulated with special clearness in consciousness. 
The gaps, or breaks, in the parallel lines represent the 
special places in experience where other states than those 
perceptible in consciousness must be introduced to per- 
fect the continuity of states. 

The red colour indicates the place of the subconscious 
in the experience. In the region of subconsciousness, the 

Holy Spirit as the agent and the states 
D?agTam. UrXn He produces, according to Scriptural 

revelation, are indicated by the red 
lettering. The dotted red line shows when the move- 
ment of experience sinks into the depths of subconscious- 
ness and returns with its results to the region of 
consciousness. The solid red line, running between the 
parallel black lines, shows how continuously and inti- 
mately the subconscious is connected with the whole 
movement, contributing a vital part to every passing 
state of the life of the Christian. 



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FACTS IN THE FOKEGKOTJND 



I. — A Needless Dkead 

" I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done 
to thy saints." — Ananias of Damascus. 1 

The genuine experimental Christian is confi- 
dent and jubilant. He has found " The Pearl 
of Great Price." It is precious 

Bryrd a An a cost! on and sacred ab °ve all values. It is 
the life of personal salvation from 
the guilt and slavery of sin. It is the life of 
spiritual peace and victory over evil within and 
without. It is a perpetual fountain of joy and 
hope. He counts nothing as sacrifice in its de- 
fense. He springs gladly into martyrdom for 
its retention. From Stephen's stony couch of 
death to the crimson sword of the Chinese Boxer 
and the dripping cimeter of the Moslem Kourd, 
the genuine Christian everywhere gives his blood 
for the life he has found in Christ. 

To touch, with critical hand, this priceless 
treasure is to touch the apple of his eye. He 
recoils ; he throws out every shield of the inner 
life with keenest concern. He is inspired, in 

1 Acts ix. 13. 
29 



30 FACTS IN THE FOREGROUND 

the first impulse, with a shrinking dread. It 
is conceived that this life of peace, this joy 

of purity, this sense of power, 
Replned HandlinE: this communion with God, this 

exhilaration of holy Presence 
must not come under common touch. It is 
too sacred, too exalted, too divine to be put 
under ordinary scrutiny. It is in a class by 
itself and must be left in its solitude and 
hallowed glory undisturbed by profane in- 
trusion. Mortal has no units by which it may 
be measured ; no reactions by which it may be 
tested ; no balances in which it may be weighed ; 
no concepts in which its mystic nature may be 
embraced. To attempt to critically examine, 
analyze, define and correlate its parts, as if it 
were a thing of common mould, is felt to be an 
act of presumptuous sacrilege. " It is true that 
we instinctively recoil from seeing an object to 
which our emotions and affections are committed 
handled by the intellect as any other object is 
handled." x No less astute and scientific a per- 
son than the devout chemist, Michael Faraday, 
sympathetic with this exclusive spirit, declared : 
" I claim an absolute distinction between a re- 
ligious and an ordinary belief. If I am re- 
proached for weakness in refusing to apply 
those mental operations, which I think good in 

1 James, " Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 9, 



A NEEDLESS DREAD 31 

high things, to the very highest, I am content 
to bear the reproach." * It is thus conceived, 
by some, that such processes as have sifted and 
systematized the rest of the known world bring 
here an indefinable peril. 

It certainly must be admitted that these 
processes sometimes, when evidently inspired 
by an inimical purpose, have 
Beget r D M reld! ds brought threatening and slaughter 
to the vital essence of this sacred 
life. They have seized it with reckless violence 
and have relentlessly sought to eliminate its 
every apparently supernatural element. A 
class of these methods has been tersely char- 
acterized by one eminently qualified so to do : 
"Medical materialism finishes up Saint Paul by 
calling his vision on the road to Damascus a 
discharging lesion of the occipital cortex, he 
being an epileptic. It snuffs out Saint Teresa 
as an hysteric, Saint Francis of Assisi as an 
hereditary degenerate. . . . Medical ma- 
terialism then thinks that the spiritual 
authority of all such personages is successfully 
undermined." 2 All such destructive efforts 
have richly earned the name of unsparing foes 
of all spiritual life. They have begotten a 
prejudice, deep-seated and persistent, against 

1 Holmes, "Pages from an Old Volume of Life," p. 312. 
8 James, "Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 13. 



32 FACTS IN THE FOREGKOUJSTD 

themselves. The rumour of their deadly work 
has permeated everywhere. The suggestion of 
anything, in the remotest way resembling them, 
awakens a dread, it matters not how just and 
even friendly the effort itself may be to the 
spiritual life. 

A single fact, however, strips such dread of 
all its force. That truth, once clearly appre- 
hended, the dread is seen to be 
Nee S d?es h s Dread utterly needless. This illuminat- 
ing truth is many-sided and may 
be variously stated. Every timorous soul 
should turn it over and over until he shall 
bring himself under its emancipating inspira- 
tion : Scrutiny can change no fact. Analysis 
has no power over essence. Truths are the 
same in the shadow or in the sunlight. 
Realities are invulnerable and unchangable to 
whatever processes subjected. The constituent 
elements of the life we call Christian are sub- 
stantial, real, unalterable. They are the eternal 
verities of the life begotten of God in the soul. 
No possible handling can render them less real, 
or change their essential nature. The dread of 
their scrutiny is a confession either of our in- 
ability to demonstrate their substantial nature 
or of our imperfect faith in their indestructible 
reality. All such dread is without adequate 
reason and actually groundless. 



Ll 



A CHOSEN INSTRUMENT 33 

II. — A Chosen Instrument 

"He is a chosen vessel unto Me." — Jesus. 1 

Christian psychology is the study of the 

soul in its exhibition of the phenomena of 

the Christian life. It is the 

PsTc V h1i°o f gy hriStian systematic, scientific knowledge 
of psychical activities involved 
in Christian experience and their coordinations 
in conduct and character. It is the exploration 
of the entire field of interrelated phenomena 
appearing in the life of the Christian. It is the 
classification of all of the facts thus discoverable 
in their correlated order. It is the formulation 
of the evident laws of the spiritual, experimental 
action developed under the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ. This Christian psychology is here to- 
day ready for the most devout and far-reaching 
service. To intimate that such psychological 
research, in its attempt to investigate the facts 
of Christian experience, will undo some of the 
sacred things of the Christian life, will under- 
mine faith, extinguish joy, emasculate spiritual 
virility or dissipate power, is Ananias-like to at- 
tempt to block the plan of God. A greater 
familiarity with the properly applied processes 
and the actual results of such psychological 
inquiry speedily recalls that intimation and 

1 Aots ix. 15. 



34 FACTS IN THE FOREGROUND 

accords a cordial welcome. A distinct Christian 
psychology has been given its place in the 
thinking of our day and its arrival is heralded 
in unmistakable events. 

Christian psychology is the inevitable specific 
application of an irresistible, world-wide move- 
ment. We are in the psycholog- 
b e e Givenlt n Must ical era par excellence in the world's 
thought. As the period of the ap- 
plication of scientific method to the investiga- 
tion of mental life its origin is of recent date. 
" It dawned ten, perhaps fifteen years ago, and 
we are living in the middle of it. . . . It 
began with an analysis of simple ideas and feel- 
ings, and it has developed to an insight into the 
mechanism of the highest acts and emotions, 
thoughts and creations. It started by studying 
the mental life of the individual, and it has 
rushed forward to the psychical organization of 
society, to social psychology, to the psychology 
of art and science, religion and language, his- 
tory and law." 1 This pushing of investigation 
into the region of the psychical to ascertain the 
demonstrable facts of that realm is not a fad, as 
a superficial survey sometimes concludes. It 
has come to stay as a permanent and important 
part of the world's research. The negative con- 
cept of the region of consciousness as impene- 

1 Munsterberg, "Psychology and Life," p. 2. 



A CHOSEN INSTRUMENT 35 

trable and unconquerable is an effete vestige of 
a past stage of thinking. The larger, newer 
vision perceives a region of fact, charged with a 
potentiality of untold measure, lying in the in- 
tangible sphere of the psychical. It is the self- 
imposed task of this age to attempt the posses- 
sion of the coveted facts of this region hitherto 
so vaguely perceived and understood. It is a 
movement both irrevocable and irresistible. 
The signal of general progress has sounded this 
advance and the wide-awake thinking of the 
Christian world cannot refuse to hear. With 
the arrival of a definite and opportune psy- 
chology of the Christian life is now borne 
abroad the call to its cordial recognition and 
prayerful reception. 

Where this psychological movement ap- 
proaches the confines of the Christian life there 

is the Damascus of our day and 
ZZSEZ the waiting figure of a new and 

half-awakened champion of ex- 
tended lines of gospel permeation. A remark- 
able metamorphosis is this hour in progress. A 
dreaded foe is being transformed into a power- 
ful ally. God is quietly preparing a mighty 
exponent of a clarified and demonstrated Chris- 
tian consciousness. The providences of God, 
taking cognizance of the factors of power in this 
psychological movement and winning them to 



36 FACTS IN THE FOREGROUND 

His own gracious uses, are saying to listening 
ears, attuned to coming realities : Here is a 
chosen vessel unto Me ; this Saul is to cease 
his murderous mission and is to be My elect 
servant ; fear and shun him no longer ; take 
him by the hand and lead him into the inner 
circle of the saved soul's more sacred knowl- 
edge ; be the Ananias to this groping but soon- 
to-be invincible Ambassador of My Gospel to a 
larger world. The ear of Christian intelligence 
will not be deaf to such authoritative summons 
as God's providences are issuing to devout and 
studious minds. New apologetics are in birth 
for Christian conquest. A new world of psy- 
chological thought is appearing on the horizon. 
Its shores are drawing near us ; its areas are 
stretching afar ; its growing multitudes await 
the coming of an evangel equipped for his mis- 
sion. Already the cry is sounding out for the 
ear that is ready to hear : " Come over into 
Macedonia and help us." * No other appeal so 
imperative is in our air to-day. True to His 
historic methods God has been getting ready for 
the emergency, He has been schooling the new 
Apostle, even though to some he appears as 
" one born out of due time/' 2 for his far-reach- 
ing task. The men and the psychology are 
coming that are together to fill an apostolic 

1 Aots xvi. 9. 2 1 Cor. xv. 8. 



A FEARLESS METHOD 37 

mission to the great Gentile world, the ever- 
growing world of psychological prejudice and 
doubt, yet to be won to the claims and appeals 
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 



III. — A Feakless Method 

11 Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good." — Paul 1 

The attitude of Christian psychology must be 

a perfectly fearless one. There must be no 

handicap upon its work. It must 

Necessary to Dis- ■% -i • • , j ,i , 

solve illusion. have unlimited range ; there must 
be no restriction upon its action. 
Any other situation would be fatal to its efficiency 
and totally subversive of its self-respect. It must 
be given a free hand and every possible chance 
to make good in its delicate but momentous 
task. This psychology of the Christian life has 
every reason to be bold. Timidity illy becomes 
such an enterprise. On the very terms of the 
Christian cosmic postulate, Christian psychology 
is simply the search of the Father's child for the 
truth that the Father has put into its place in 
the psychic world in the prosecution of His re- 
demptive economy. Timidity as to the final 
consequences is entirely out of place in such an 
effort. All this arises from the fact that what 
God really says needs no special pleading in its 

*1 Thess. v. 21. 



38 FACTS IN THE FOREGROUND 

defense. It, as the truth of divine utterance, is 
abundantly able to hold its own in all the or- 
deals of human investigation. Furthermore, 
what God does in the soul has all the enduring 
substance of a divine deed and must survive the 
most painstaking scrutiny that man can bring 
to bear upon it. " Nor ought this absolutely 
untrammelled scientific investigation to give 
anxiety to any real believer in God. For scien- 
tific investigation simply seeks the facts, and can, 
therefore, so far as it is successful, only make 
more clear to us exactly how God did proceed." 1 
The genuine processes that take place in the 
soul, in the passing stages of Christian expe- 
rience and character, are real states, positively 
being what they purport to be, and hence by no 
possible handling resolvable into anything other 
than they really are. Anything that may have 
crept into Christian life that does not possess 
this real, substantial, divine nature and is palm- 
ing itself off on human interpretation as an es- 
sential and vital part of the saved life should be 
detected and dissolved away under such rigor- 
ous method as knows no mercy on illusion. 
Every real friend of the Christian life will de- 
mand such a method. 

The work of search into the entire range of 
psychical activity involved in Christian expe- 

1 King, " Reconstruction in Theology," p. 49. 



A FEARLESS METHOD 39 

rience should be, without fear of harm to any- 
thing true, unsparing of every spiritual state in 

the light turned on and in the 
S o m Truth° yaIty minute and penetrating inspection 

pushed to its last possible discov- 
ery and revelation. It is no treachery to the 
truth to put it through the processes that demon- 
strate its verity. It is, indeed, the highest loyalty 
to the truth to give it an unequivocal chance to 
prove itself, to sweep aside all occultations and 
to shine with undimmed radiance, to eliminate 
dilutions and adulterations and make its essence 
exhibit its own splendid self. " Truth has noth- 
ing to fear and everything to hope from such a 
struggle." * Every interest of truth calls for such 
a method since any other would inevitably betray 
the truth in countless instances. Prescribed in- 
quiry is the resort of tricksters and charlatans. 
Who has something to conceal seeks the shadow. 
Substantial truth ever triumphs best in the open. 
The challenge of Scripture summons to the 
widest range of untrammelled investigation. 
" Prove all things." 2 This is a call to rigid test- 
ing. Its goal is underlying essence. It curries 
no favour for cherished notions. It savours of 
the balances and the blinded eyes of Justice. 
It sweeps all fields and levels all barriers. 

1 King, "Reconstruction in Theology n p. 14. 
UThess. v. 21. 



40 FACTS IN THE FOREGROUND 

" Hold fast that which is good." x This is a call 
to discriminating loyalty ; it is obstruction to 
reckless iconoclasm. It assures the surviving 
real, substantial good, and enjoins unswerving 
and intense adhesion thereto. Such is the dar- 
ing, open-minded attitude of Scripture towards 
the possible appearings of truth wherever they 
occur. 

Christian psychology can afford to adopt no 

other method. It must lay bare the entire area 

and content of the Christian soul. 

Alone Worthy 

of christian Psy. I here cannot be the least reserva- 
tion in the range of its work. It 
must invite investigation of the profoundest, 
most deep-lying phenomena of the inner life. 
The origin and reaction of spiritual states, the 
continuity of processes, the Scriptural delinea- 
tions of indefinable and undiscernible stages, the 
gaps or abysses in experimental consciousness, 
all these must be passed under the search-light 
of an unfaltering inquiry as to the demonstrable 
truth that can survive such research. " If the 
fruits for life of the state of conversion are good, 
we ought to idealize and venerate it, even though 
it be a piece of natural psychology ; if not, we 
ought to make short work with it, no matter 
what supernatural being may have infused it." 2 

1 1 Thess. v. 21. 

2 James, "Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 237. 



A MEASURELESS BENEFIT 41 

Such are the words of one of the most candid 
general psychologists of our day, setting forth, 
from his point of view, the proper attitude of 
sincere psychological research towards the facts 
of Christian experience. Christian psychology 
can take an attitude of no less candour and loy- 
alty to the truth. Such method needs no apology 
and calls forth the unqualified approval of every 
open-minded student of the Christian life. 



IV.— A Measureless Benefit 

"Ye shall know the truth ; and the truth shall make you free."— 
Jesus. 1 

What are the definable states of Christian ex- 
perience ? What is the succession or interrela- 
tion of its states ? Do all of these 

ReH h e e ve P d. rplexities states lie within the range of con- 
sciousness? If any of them lie 
without that range, can we know where they 
lie and what they are ? Does inspired revela- 
tion shed any light on Christian experience be- 
yond the range of direct consciousness ? What 
may be positively known in Christian expe- 
rience ? How do the inner states of experience 
relate themselves to the outer states of charac- 
ter? What are the uniform, practical products 
in every-day life that normally spring from the 

1 John viii. 32. 



42 FACTS IN THE FOREGROUND 

genuine, typical Christian experience? How 
do these psychical states project themselves into 
the outer forms of Christian character ? What 
is the underlying, all-sufficient power operative 
in these experimental processes? Christian 
psychology sets itself to answer these queries, 
and, in the measure it succeeds, will go far to 
give to Christian experience and life a definite 
place and content in the thought of the world. 
It has been declared that Drummond's greatest 
contribution to our generation is this : " That 
there are definite conditions to be fulfilled for 
any spiritual attainment, that these conditions 
may be known, and that when fulfilled you may 
count on the results ; " this declaration being 
followed in the same utterance with the con- 
clusion : " Theology has much to gain in clear- 
ness and precision of statement, and in power 
of appeal in the development of this line of 
thought." 1 " The psychological standpoint is 
not only important but indispensable for the re- 
ligious worker, whether preacher or teacher. 
No amount of goodness or devotion can take its 
place." 2 

The psychology of Christian life thus holds 
in its purpose the clarification of what assumes 
to be a systematic process of the grace of God in 

1 King, " Reconstruction in Theology," p. 59. 

2 Cutten, "The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity," p. 6. 



A MEASURELESS BENEFIT 43 

the soul. It aims to sweep away the hazy, 
nebulous conceptions of spiritual states that have 

all too long been the misfortune 
Eiim'natcT ° f Christian terminology. It sets 

aside the alluring but bewilder- 
ing twilight of unwarranted mysticism. It 
eliminates misunderstandings and unreliable 
expectations which so often form misleading 
standards of saving experience. It forever puts 
a period to those heart-sickening gropings after 
fanciful phases of experience which the very 
nature of spiritual things and the promises of 
Scripture, when properly understood, never en- 
courage. It makes clear and luminous the 
pathway of spiritual states along which the 
normal heart moves in genuine Christian life. 
It traces the vital connection between the potent 
states of the inner, psychical being, constituting 
the essence of Christian experience, and the con- 
sistent states of character and life that spring 
therefrom as light and heat spring from fire. It 
does not explain processes ; it defines them and 
makes them clearly recognizable. It does not 
do away with mystery ; it locates, outlines, il- 
luminates, makes more positive and unques- 
tionable the unfathomed and evidently un- 
fathomable depths that underlie the conscious 
states of the Christian life. 

All these are vital and priceless things that 



4A FACTS IN THE FOREGROUND 

we need to know ; indeed we cannot know too 
much about them. Every expansion of such 

knowledge confers measureless 
c n on E f™rred! pation benefits. With such knowledge 

we can more intelligently adjust 
ourselves to spiritual things. We are liberated 
from traditional, and often mythical, views. 
We are enabled to enter the stable, reliable uni- 
form region of experimental truth. We are no 
longer so subject to error by reason of indefinite- 
ness and confusion in our apprehension of the 
facts of Christian experience. We can more 
confidently and accurately lead into the sub- 
stantial spiritual states that are the sources of 
the purest and most exalted life others whose 
bewildered spiritual effort is aptly portrayed : 
" They are simply feeling around in the dark. 
What may result they can have no idea ; much 
disappointment is certain ; they can only hope 
that here and there something of what they 
seek may be stumbled upon." 1 We are thus 
able to protect ourselves and others from disap- 
pointments and disastrous reactions entailed by 
erroneous views of experimental things. We 
find out where God touches us. We learn how 
His divine hand changes and moulds our spir- 
itual being. We discover indubitable evidences 
of His presence and work. Christian experience 

^ing, " The Seeming Unreality of the Spiritual Life," p. 103. 



A MEASURELESS BENEFIT 45 

is made clear, definite, orderly, wonderful, in- 
vincible in its conquest of hearts whose volition 
is responsive to the impression of such truths. 
We are, in truth, made free in the liberty of a 
larger, clearer vision of the processes and forces 
constituting the experience and life of the Chris- 
tian. 

Thus the psychology of the Christian life, its 
experience and character, is big with measure- 
less blessing for the world of candid 
SLScSr* thought and spiritual aspiration. 
In this direction lie the richest un- 
foldings of Christian truth in coming genera- 
tions. This science of the spiritual life is only 
in its infancy. As it grows in grasp, penetra- 
tion and facility its beneficent results will 
multiply in an ever-ascending proportion. All 
hail to every sincere effort, however imperfect, 
towards the formulation of an approximate psy- 
chology of the inner and outer life of the Chris- 
tian. 



PART I 

The States of Christian Experience 



THE FIELD OF EXPEKIMENTAL STATES 

The soul's activities occur under all shades 
of vividness. They sometimes take place under 

the concentrated glare of mental 
Psychrclafvity. illumination that makes the most 

trifling stir of psychical powers 
stand out with a distinctness that is almost 
painful. Memory recalls it all with a clearness 
that never dims. It seems as if we were acting 
under the focalized rays of some brilliant 

spiritual search-light that floods 
Fun consciousness, the inner life until all is as 

clear as noonday. Thoughts, 
emotions, volitions act and interact in a white 
light of intense vividness. 

At other times, psychic movement is dim and 
vague. We scarcely realize that there is any 

action. It is with great difficulty 
consctusness. that we grope our way back over 

the path of consecutive brain- 
action along which we have been moving. We 
seem to have been borne along by a subtle, un- 
volitional undercurrent of psychic energy, in 

49 



50 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

such an obscure half-light that we have passed 
state after state of mental action practically un- 
awares. We have been brought abruptly up 
against our conclusions nearly oblivious of the 
stages by which the approach has been made. 
We are thoroughly convinced that the move- 
ment has taken place even though it has been 
through a hazy twilight of mental perceptions. 
Revery is full of such passageways where the 
course of psychical action dips well down to the 
lowest plane of consciousness, almost beyond 
voluntary recall, subsequently to emerge into 
the light of full consciousness bearing positive 
and accurate results whose sources in our mental 
action are quite obscure to us. 

There are yet other times when psychical 
action proceeds without the knowledge on the 
part of the individual that it is 
subconsciousness, transpiring. The outcroppings of 
a multitude of conditions appear- 
ing in consciousness are overwhelming indica- 
tions of this underlying region of psychic 
activity that no vision of introspection has been 
able to fathom. This is not the place for an 
attempt at an exhaustive statement of the 
psychological facts that have been accumulated 
in demonstration of this underlying region of 
psychic activity. For a survey of the mass of 
such material the reader is referred especially 



FIELD OF EXPERIMENTAL STATES 51 

to the treatises of leading philosophical and 
psychological authors of the last decade. It 
should perhaps be said that while the psycho- 
logical world may not be absolutely unanimous 
in the matter of this subconscious field — what 
scientific postulate is ever positively unanimous 
among students of phenomena ? — it may still be 
safely affirmed that psychological thought is 
fast verging towards a practical unanimity on 
the existence of this subconscious area in the 
psychical field as the only possible key to the 
solution of numerous problems of the psychical 
life. " I cannot but think that the most im- 
portant step forward that has oc- 
v^rfficadon. curred in psychology since I have 

been a student of that science is 
the discovery, first made in 1886, that, in certain 
subjects at least, there is not only the conscious- 
ness of the ordinary field, with its usual centre 
and margin, but an addition thereto in the 
shape of a set of memories, thoughts and feel- 
ings which are extra-marginal and outside of 
the primary consciousness altogether, but yet 
must be classed as conscious facts of some sort, 
able to reveal their presence by unmistakable 
signs. I call this the most important step for- 
ward because, unlike the other advances which 
psychology has made, this discovery has revealed 
to us an entirely unsuspected peculiarity in the 



52 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

constitution of human nature." 1 What will, 
therefore, be clearly understood as conceded in 
this entire discussion is that psychic activity 
has larger range than earlier psychological 
opinion has been accustomed to grant it, and 
that this range includes not only the region of 
consciousness but also a region of subconscious- 
ness, or ultra-consciousness, in which as genuine 
and potent spiritual activities occur as in the 
region of consciousness. This entire range con- 
stitutes the field of the states of Christian 
experience. 

Consciousness is the souTs knowledge of its 
own states and conditions. Conscious states are 
such states of the soul as come 
consciousness. within the embrace of such knowl- 
edge. The region of consciousness 
is comprised of all such states as are susceptible 
of being brought under the perception of con- 
sciousness. We are really only conscious of 
what actually occurs within the area of conscious- 
ness. That area, as a general region, is a vari- 
able surface of the psychical field. It varies in- 
versely as the intensity of attention. Concentra- 
tion of attention means the withdrawing of 
consciousness from its general area and its limi- 
tation to a specific spot. If the specialization is 
intense enough we become unconscious of every- 

1 James, " Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 233. 



FIELD OF EXPERIMENTAL STATES 53 

thing else. But while the area of consciousness 
is thus temporarily a variable surface, subject to 
volitional limitations, it soon reverts to its 
original, normal region which includes all 
psychical states apprehensible by the perceptions 
of consciousness. 

Consciousness has nothing to do with the con- 
ditions external to the psychical area. It has to 
do, however, with the sensations 
content of begotten of those external condi- 

Consciousness. ° 

tions. It has to do directly with 
the perceptions of the sensations thus occasioned. 
The region of consciousness is, therefore, com- 
posed of perceptions of sensations produced by 
external things, and of thoughts, emotions and 
volitions lying within the cognizable, psychical 
area. Just where the utmost limits of these 
states lie no one can tell. But what states come 
within the region of ordinary consciousness is a 
matter of testimony arising from the concensus 
of experience. Judgments, conclusions, convic- 
tions, imaginations, ideas in countless formula- 
tions are objects that consciousness apprehends 
and comprise a part of the region of conscious- 
ness. Other thoughts there evidently are, but 
they are not in the region of consciousness and 
we are not just here concerned with them. 
There is consciousness also of emotions. Joy, 
love, hate, sorrow, emotions in endless minglings 



54 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

and varieties are immediately perceived by 
consciousness and comprise much territory in 
the region of consciousness. Other affections of 
the psychical structure, essentially emotional in 
nature, there may be, but they are not within 
the region of consciousness and are not just here 
pertinent to our thought. We are still further 
conscious of volitions. The movements of the 
will in choice, determination, resolution are 
preeminently matters of consciousness. What 
volitional exertion may be actual beyond the 
limits of definite consciousness does not here 
call for discussion. We do know that an im- 
portant part of the region of consciousness con- 
sists of clearly cognizable volitional activities. 
The region of consciousness becomes thus quite 
clearly definable. Its content is simple and 
easily discernible under discriminating examina- 
tion. Our task is not, however, the making of 
an exhaustive invoice of the entire content of 
the region of consciousness. Our purpose is 
merely to reaffirm what consciousness ever 
asserts for itself, the existence of a definite region 
of its own. This region of consciousness is the 
positive, tangible area of Christian experience. 
It is the final court of appeal. It is the norm 
by which all else is adjusted. It is the field of 
demonstration where Christian truth for the 
future is to prove itself. 



FIELD OF EXPERIMENTAL STATES 55 

Our subsequent effort shall be to differentiate 
from all else, in this region of consciousness, 

such states therein occurring as 
^ h Dia R gram n form an integral part of Christian 

experience ; to trace wherever dis- 
cernible the causal relations between these states 
as they succeed each other ; to analyze them into 
their component parts that a clear conception of 
their content may be had, and thus to contribute 
to a complete survey of the field of that expe- 
rience. That the area of the region of conscious- 
ness may be graphically put before the mind 
resort is had to a diagram which is made to 
enter as a component part of completer diagrams 
employed in the subsequent stages of our 
thought. (See Diagram I.) In this diagram the 
two parallel lines, AB, mark the division be- 
tween the region of consciousness and the region 
of subconsciousness. The region above these 
lines comprises the area of consciousness which 
is bounded by the lines : ABC. In subsequent 
treatment, all of Christian experience, of which 
we have any direct knowledge, must appear 
within this area. On this surface, here blank, 
will be sketched in later diagrams, an attempted 
map of this region of consciousness so far as it 
pertains to the states of Christian experience. 
The conscious field of that experience is thus 
spread before the eye. It is hoped that a care- 



56 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

ful study of these diagrams will go far to make 
clear the distinctions and differentiations to 
which we are driven by a critical and psycholog- 
ical analysis of the inner life of the Christian. 

It is to be noted that, in point of fact, there is 

no under, no above, no beyond in the psychic 

sphere. The choice of a term to 

Region of Subcon- . i . -i . . 1 • 1 

sciousness. express that psychic region which 

lies without consciousness is a 
matter of comparative indifference. Perhaps the 
one most generally used is subconsciousness. 
Possibly it is most wisely chosen as being ex- 
pressive of that region of the psychic area seem- 
ingly underlying, as a substratum, the region of 
consciousness. Its basal, fundamental function 
appears to find expression in this term more 
clearly than in any other that has been suggested. 
Subconsciousness, then, is the term that is de- 
scriptive of the state of absence of 
Meaning of Term, knowledge, on the part of the soul, 
of certain of its own conceded ac- 
tivities. " Mental changes, of whose results we 
subsequently become conscious, may go on be- 
low the plane of consciousness, either during 
profound sleep or while the attention is wholly 
engrossed by some entirely different train of 
thought." 1 Wundt positively declares: "It is 
proved that there is not merely a conscious, but 

1 Carpenter, " Mental Physiology," p. 510. 



FIELD OF EXPERIMENTAL STATES 57 

also an unconscious, thinking." The region 
where such psychic activities, attended by this ab- 
sence of consciousness, take place is the region of 
subconsciousness. Where it lies in the cerebral 
world matters little to us. 

It is not a difficult task to conceive of a por- 
tion of the sum-total of psychical activities of 
which there is no consciousness. It is the purest 
assumption that consciousness does or can take 
note of every stir of psychical energy. There may 
be large tracts of the psychical area of which there 
never can be any consciousness. Indeed it is 
possible, so far as any human being can certify, 
that the region of consciousness is a very meagre 
portion of the entire psychical field. " He who 
thinks to illuminate the whole range of mental 
action by the light of his own consciousness is 
not unlike the one who should go about to illu- 
minate the universe with a rushlight." 1 In any 
consideration of Christian experience, at all 
T ,. „ . __ , commensurate with the field in 

This Region Vital 

in christian Ex- which that experience is elabor- 

perience. ■ L 

ated, distinct account must be 
taken of this wide range of psychic activity. 
To attempt to delineate that experience in 
any intelligent way while restricting the in- 
quiry to the narrow limits of psychic activ- 
ity discernible in consciousness would be to 

1 Maudeley, " Physiology of the Soul, " p. 44. 



58 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

ignore unmeasured tracts of spiritual life in 
which occur some of the most vital and radical 
phases of the great process under investigation. 
An attempt so void of all comprehension of its 
task is to-day little short of puerile. All trust- 
worthy treatment of the profound states involved 
in the experimental aspects of the life of the 
Christian must take into account the occurrences 
that alone can be located in these outskirts of the 
psychic area. It must not be expected that this 
increased range can be exactly surveyed, its 
lines run, its distances computed and its areas 
chartered. Far from all such hard and fast 
method lie the possible delineations. Neverthe- 
less a treatment of Christian experience which 
ignores the subconscious suffers a tragic defect, 
leading many a soul into endless confusion, 
agonizing disappointment and, not infrequently, 
bitterest skepticism. To seek sub- 
Demands increased consc i ous phenomena in the region 

Recognition. -T o 

of consciousness is a hopeless quest. 
To heedlessly blend conscious and subconscious 
elements of psychic activity in indiscriminate 
discussion of Christian experience is, in this day, 
a species of censurable blundering which borders 
hard upon moral crime. The region of subcon- 
sciousness imperatively demands immediate and 
increasing recognition in the experimental 
thought of the Christian world. 



FIELD OF EXPERIMENTAL STATES 59 

The subconscious region is given a large and 
important place in the development of this dis- 
cussion. The factors of Christian 

Experimental Con- 
tents of Subcon- experience, not appearing within 

sciousness. 

the range of consciousness, are as- 
signed their location in the region of sub- 
consciousness. Enough may be anticipated at 
this stage of our inquiry, in order here to in- 
timate in some slight measure the importance 
of the subconscious, to say that the so-called 
supernatural in Christian experience has its 
place in the region of the subconscious. " Just 
as our primary wide-awake consciousness throws 
open our senses to the touch of things material, 
so it is logically conceivable that if there be 
higher spiritual agencies that can directly touch 
us, the psychological condition of their doing so 
might be our possession of a subconscious region 
which alone should yield access to them." * God 
does not appear in consciousness. We are never 
conscious of the Holy Spirit directly. The 
actual work of regeneration does not occur in 
consciousness. These factors, and many of like 
nature, transpiring somewhere in the psychical 
tract, alone find place in the area of the subcon- 
scious. 

This region of subconsciousness also has its 
place in diagram. (See Diagram I.) The area 

1 James, " Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 242. 



60 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

lying below the parallel lines, AB, and em- 
braced by the lines, ABD, represents the sub- 
conscious tract. In this area, in 
This Region also subsequent diagrams, it has been 

in Diagram. *■ ° ; 

attempted to map, by the aid of 
inferential and inspirational sources of informa- 
tion, the experimental transactions occurring in 
the subconscious region. 

These two great regions of the psychical field, 

just considered, are not closed away from each 

other by impassible barriers. In- 

Consciousness and -i-iii i • n t i ' 

subconsciousness, deed, the lines 01 demarcation, 
where the one ends and the other 
begins, are very indistinct. The shading down 
of consciousness is by such imperceptible degrees 
that the point of exact separation is impossible 
to fix. The regions of consciousness and sub- 
consciousness are positive and distinct in their 
differentiation, but just where the cleavage oc- 
curs it is impossible for the 

Exact Line of , . . . . 

cleavage not most discriminating thought to 

determine. This blending at the 
borders spans all chasm that might otherwise 
occur. It bridges from one to the other in such 
a way that the interrelations between the two are 
exceedingly intimate and intricate. The inter- 
change of impulses is continuous, imperceptible 
and momentous. " That the soul may act with- 
out being conscious of what it does and that 



FIELD OF EXPERIMENTAL STATES 61 

these unconscious acts affect those acts of which 
it is conscious has been already established." 1 
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes confidently asserted : 
11 The more we examine the mechanism of 
thought, the more we shall see that the automatic, 
unconscious action of the mind enters largely 
into its processes." 2 " The two fields of mental 
activity are divided by what has been designated 
as ' the threshold of consciousness/ All above 
is consciousness ; all below is subconsciousness, 
but they interact on each other." 3 The ordi- 
nary life is utterly oblivious of the existence of 
two regions in the psychic field. Only the most 
painstaking and scientific introspection and 
observation have discovered these distinct hemi- 
spheres of the soul's life. Their interwoven, 
dovetailed points of contact have left the com- 
mon impression that there is but one region, 
that of consciousness. The passage back and 
forth is so easy and imperceptible as to utterly 
escape the attention of the casual observer. 

Consciousness contributes vast treasures to the 
subconscious region. It stirs its energies, directs 
its currents, cuts its channels, proposes its tasks. 
All this is done with no deliberateness of pur- 
pose. So intimate are the relations that all 

1 Porter, " Human Intellect," p. 103. 

5 Holmes, " Pages from an Old Volume of Life," p. 284. 

• Cntten, M The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity," p. 16, 



62 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

tides of the conscious life beat on the farthest 

shores of the subconscious area. Habit begins 

in the region of consciousness. 

t E o^ e C Jt n hen Utes The repeated action is sometimes 
irksome and difficult and is only 
done by conscious and persistent volition. By 
degrees it passes over into the subconscious 
until it becomes an apparently automatic process 
and ceases to appear in consciousness at all. A 
problem staggers the conscious powers with its 
vexing difficulties. It is given up in conscious 
effort. At some later hour the subconscious 
powers push up into the region of consciousness 
the solution as clear as crystal without an instant 
of conscious effort. On the other hand the sub- 
conscious is perpetually on the initiative. It 
gives direction to thought ; it flashes new light 
on dark subjects ; it resurrects buried memories ; 
it is an exhaustless fountainhead, forever pour- 
ing out fresh conceptions as from some unseen 
laboratory. This interchange is distinctly im- 
plied in the statement : " When a psychical 
process passes into an unconscious state we speak 
of it as sinking below the threshold of conscious- 
ness and when a psychical process arises we say 
it appears above the threshold of consciousness." * 
So smooth and frictionless are these passages 
that the mind is superficially deceived into the 

1 Wundt, " Outlines of Psychology," p. 229. 



FIELD OF EXPERIMENTAL STATES 63 

feeling that all these are the direct product of 
its immediate conscious effort. " The most im- 
portant consequence of having a strongly 
developed ultra-marginal life of this sort is that 
one's ordinary fields of consciousness are liable 
to incursions from it of which the subject does 
not guess the source." * 

All of these facts have immensely to do with 

the elaboration of the experimental phases of 

the life of the Christian. Back 

First Task of 

christian and forth these processes pass be- 

Psychology. , . „ 

tween the regions of consciousness 
and subconsciousness. Occurrences in the sub- 
conscious region project themselves into con- 
sciousness and set in motion states that succeed 
each other in continuous movement ; these in 
turn seize upon conditions in the subconscious 
region and bring to bear upon the life processes 
that break out again into consciousness with 
startling revolutionary effects. The task of 
tracing these processes in the life of the Chris- 
tian as they move back and forth through the 
psychic area between consciousness and sub- 
consciousness is a work of exceeding delicacy 
and difficulty. It is, however, of incalculable 
importance. The intelligent Christian of the 
future must be able to recognize the genuine 
states of reliable, Scriptural experience that 

1 James, " Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 234. 



64 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

have any place in consciousness; he must as 
well be able to locate such other vital states as 
occur in subconsciousness ; and he must be able 
to identify the reciprocal relations between the 
two classes of phenomena. "The psychology 
of conversion cannot be understood without a 
recognition of the reciprocal action of these two 
factors. The conscious and the subconscious 
factors rarely act separately in conversion, if 
they ever do." 1 The psychology of Christian 
experience has thus placed upon it this its first 
great task of ever-growing importance, that of 
localization of the states of Christian experience 
in the psychical area and of interpretation of 
their mutual relations. 

These interchanges between the conscious and 
the subconscious regions, in the elaboration of 

Christian experience, have also 
iL h m e agram. changes been set forth in diagram. (See 

Diagram I.) The parallel lines, 
AB, marking the division between the conscious 
and the subconscious regions, have breaks in 
them. The arrows, piercing these openings, 
show points and directions of interchange be- 
tween the two regions. Down into the sub- 
conscious and up into the conscious the 
wondrous impulsions of the spiritual life move 
back and forth, shuttle-like, weaving the match- 

1 Cutten, "The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity," p. 253. 



FIELD OF EXPERIMENTAL STATES 65 

less fabric of the Christian life. In text and 
diagram the entire field of experimental states 
is now spread before us. Its wide range, its 
two great regions in the psychic area, its 
channels of interchange between them, these 
are all now clearly in thought, preparing us to 
enter at once upon the critical examination of 
the specific states constituting Christian ex- 
perience. 



II 

THE ANTECEDENT STATES 

(See Diagram II) 

The dawn of consciousness is exceedingly 
dim. Not even the vaguest shreds of memory 
reach back to its initial processes. 
?o7sciousne SS . Reliable study of the first contents 
of consciousness can only proceed 
by careful external observation. The earliest 
possible use of such observation finds in child- 
consciousness a cluster of impulses and receptive 
capacities. Restraint and control of these are a 
later lesson. These first discernible phenomena 
are the revelation of the unmodified trend of 
the primal being. Limiting our inquiry to the 
problems in hand, we confine our attention to 
those conditions with which we are specifically 
concerned. 

The study of the earlier stages of conscious- 
ness reveals two which are profoundly suggestive 

Two Earlier Sta es- ^° US *** 0UT P reSen ^ ^est. There 

(i) Readiness of jg an instinctive responsiveness to 
the exhibition of love and sacri- 
fice. The story of the Gospel, telling of the 
love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, finds a quick 

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THE ANTECEDENT STATES 67 

understanding in the child-soul when the 
statement is put into simple, comprehensible 
form. The mind of the child breathes it in as 
if it were its native air. The child-perception 
of redeeming truth is a surprise to all thought- 
ful students of early consciousness. There is a 
state in the psychic life of childhood that con- 
stitutes a notable capacity to see the force of 
simple spiritual truth. What is the source of 
this delicate spiritual perceptiveness ? 

11 Upon the hour when I was born, 
God said, i Another man shall be,' 
And the great Maker did not scorn 
Out of Himself to fashion me ; 
He sunned me with His ripening looks, 
And Heaven's rich instincts in me grew 
As effortless as woodland nooks 
Send violets up and paint them blue." ■ 

The study of child-consciousness furthermore 
reveals a special appetency for the peculiar gifts 

the Gospel of Christ offers. They 
Ricepuon . 688 ° are sweet to its taste. There is 

evidently a preexisting liking for 
them. An eminent lecturer in the medical de- 
partment of the University of Maryland once 
said to his students, " To pray is as natural to a 
child as the desire for food." 2 The psychic 
powers, in the early stages of consciousness, re- 

1 Lowell. 

'Quoted by Sylvanus Stall, "What a YouDg Man Should Know," 
p. 32. 



68 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

veal a relish for such truth as is contained in 
the simple Gospel of Jesus as the Saviour. That 
early consciousness not only easily comprehends 
but also greedily devours the rudimentary prin- 
ciples of redeeming grace. " Such an inclina- 
tion to Christ, effected by God, is even possible 
in little children, and even not impossible to 
newly born children." 1 President Hall asserts 
the same truth, though in the most general 
terms : " In childhood credulity amounts to 
hypnotic suggestibility." 2 Professor Pratt joins 
in this testimony : " Absolute trustfulness is his 
(the child's) characteristic, and belief is to him 
both natural and necessary." 3 What is the 
source of this native relish for the Gospel in the 
very structure of child-consciousness ? 

These facts concerning the attitude of early 
consciousness towards Christian truth are con- 
ceded, in a general way at least, by 
sitionl Predlspo ' nearly all students of child-life. 
" What more appropriate to the 
doctrine of spiritual influence itself than to be- 
lieve that ... all human souls, the infan- 
tile as well as the adult, have a nurture of the 
Spirit appropriate to their age and their wants." 4 



1 Delitzsch, "System of Biblical Psychology," p. 415. 
3 Hall, "Adolescence," Vol. II, p. 315. 
3 J. B. Pratt, "The Psychology of Religious Belief," p. 205. 
4 Bushnell, "Christian Nurture," p. 17. 



THE ANTECEDENT STATES 69 

The ease with which childhood accepts the 
Gospel has become a self-evident principle in all 
Christendom. Indeed, this ease has been so 
universally observed that overcautious parents, 
with great want of wisdom, often withhold 
young life from conformity to these early im- 
pulses, violently reserving the privilege of relig- 
ious choice until mature years, on the ground of 
the peculiar impulsiveness of these earlier tend- 
encies. Scientific study of early consciousness 
furnishes no extant evidence of such total de- 
pravity as has been formulated in doctrinal state- 
ments. On the contrary, child-consciousness 
bears every evidence of the existence of a posi- 
tive predisposition towards the life of the Chris- 
tian. At least, the phenomena constituting such 
predisposition are certainly present under the 
environment of Christian civilization and home- 
life. The undisciplined vigour of perfectly 
proper impulses has often been erroneously con- 
strued as indisputable evidence of a nature 
evil at the core. It is, however, nothing of the 
kind. The untrained kitten needs to be taught 
the proper volitional restraint of its claws ; play- 
ful or startled, its reckless scratching is no evi- 
dence of a vicious nature. Child impulses are 
equally innocent, equally in need of right guid- 
ance, equally void as evidence of depravity, and, 
moreover, hold among themselves additional 



TO STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

impulses constituting such a predisposition as 
has been indicated. 

The actual presence of this predisposition is 

all that appears in consciousness ; nothing of its 

origin can there be discovered. If 

s"b g co n nsdou h s! tne soul of man was ever totally 
gone in the possession of evil im- 
pulse, somehow and some time a power from 
without the soul has laid hold upon it and ever 
since then the evil impulses have been made to 
give place, in the uncontaminated consciousness 
of childhood, to other impulses open to the 
highest and best overtures from without. This 
engendering of a favourable predisposition 
towards the Gospel must be located somewhere 
below the threshold of consciousness ; it can 
only take place in the region of the subcon- 
scious. By what processes the springs of spir- 
itual states are so adjusted that such impulses 
are given birth and made transcendant, or even 
that such profound adjustment occurs at all, 
consciousness has no knowledge whatsoever. 
Somewhere, however, in the depth of the spirit 
these subtle and elusive changes occur, and 
there rises into consciousness the resultant pre- 
disposition with its simple perception of and 
relish for gospel truth. Scientific observation 
can trace these processes to their hiding-place 
in the subconscious. It can go no further. 



THE ANTECEDENT STATES 71 

Where science ends, however, inspiration 
takes up the trace and follows it into the 
depths. We get glimpses into the 
t T h h e e s"urce Spirit subconscious revealing, not the ex- 
act processes obtaining there, but 
the thing actually done and the agency operat- 
ing. This is not the place for the discussion of 
the validity of such inspirational information. 
That part of our subject will be fully considered 
at a later stage of our treatment. 1 We shall, 
for the present, assume the authority of Scrip- 
tural inspiration as to what occurs in the region 
of the subconscious in the processes of the Chris- 
tian life. This inspiration flashes gleams of 
light into the depths underlying child-con- 
sciousness. The fact is thereby made positive 
that the source of childhood's predisposition 
towards the Gospel is the action of the Holy 
Spirit on the psychic states in the region of 
the subconscious. 

We crowd our scrutiny into some of these 
meagre Scriptural openings by which dim 
glimpses seem to be had into 
"jiii^nation. * ne subconsciousness of child- 
hood, where are wrought the very 
beginnings of spiritual life. Of all the apostolic 
minds that of John was most gifted with the 
power of penetration into the depths of spiritual 

1 Part II, Chapter IV. 



72 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

truth and life. Writing of the life and light 
manifested to the world by the incarnated Word 
and perpetuated among men in the work of the 
Holy Spirit, he declares : " There was the true 
Light, even the Light that lighteth every man 
coming into the world." 1 Thus is set forth 
" The Logos, as the internal light, enlightening 
every man, illuminating by the sublime intui- 
tions of the good, the beautiful, the true." 2 
Here is the mystic light that first permeates the 
awakening soul, making consciousness a lumi- 
nous receptacle for gospel truth. In the glow of 
that dawning light the truths of Jesus Christ 
are perceived with remarkable clearness. An 
indefinable luminosity rises unbidden from the 
subconscious, whose source or place of entrance 
is undiscoverable, preparing conscious intelli- 
gence for the ready perception of the rudimen- 
tary truths of the Gospel. The human spirit 
comes into being with this wondrous light 
streaming up from the subconscious. 

Jesus Himself, for an instant, draws aside the 
veil of the depths below consciousness and gives 
us another initiatory fact of the spiritual life. 
He affirms : " No man can come to Me except 
the Father which sent Me draw him." 3 The act 



1 John i. 9. 

2 Godet, " Gospel of St. John," Vol. I, p. 259. 

3 John vi. 44. 



THE ANTECEDENT STATES 73 

of drawing, from the point of view of the Spirit, 
takes shape as an impulse, from the point of 
view of the personality drawn. 
(a) initial impulse. Pouring up from the Spirit's pres- 
ence in the subconscious, the 
drawing force seems to be a spontaneous im- 
pulse in the region of consciousness. The soul 
does not dream that it is being drawn. The di- 
vine Presence in the psychic depths sheds forth 
a drawing energy which takes shape in an im- 
pulsion of being towards Christ and all that He 
stands for in the world. It forms itself into an 
appetency, a relish for all things pertaining to 
Him. Here, therefore, in these underlying 
depths arises the initial impulse of the life of 
the Christian. Here in the being of the Holy 
Spirit, the personality of the divine immanence, 
penetrating and surcharging the entire range of 
the psychic life, is found the source of the primal 
impulse of Christian experience. The divine 
Being pervades, saturates the psychic life so that 
the child-consciousness is illuminated and vital- 
ized by this holy Presence. 

This unresisting psychic life of the child, 
charged with the illuminating and impelling 
presence of the Holy Spirit, is set forth by 
Christ Himself as the type of every life par- 
ticipating in the kingdom of God. The words 
of Christ are, " Of such is the kingdom of 



U STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

God." * He followed that statement with an- 
other of like import : " Whosoever shall not 
receive the kingdom of God as a 

?yp S icah Paration little child > he sha11 in no wise 
enter therein." 2 Could the pre- 
pared state of the child soul be more explicitly 
affirmed? Through the profound depths un- 
derlying consciousness the ever-pervasive im- 
manence of the Spirit of God has penetrated, 
suffusing incipient consciousness with heavenly 
radiance and generating a holy relish so that 
the instant the truth of the kingdom drops into 
the soul it finds everything ready for its coming. 
Inspiration provides such meagre but significant 
glimpses as these into the initial stages which 
would otherwise baffle all human penetration. 
From the conditions thus revealed arises the 
preliminary movement towards the subsequent 
and more definite states of Christian experience. 
The subconscious, however, holds more than 
the simple initiative. It underlies all conscious- 
ness. The movement of Christian 

of a state^ elati ° ns experience seems now to be domi- 
nated largely by conscious states, 
and then again it appears to be almost com- 
pletely submerged among the subconscious states. 
While following this current of experimental 
activity in either of these regions of the psychical 

1 Mark x. 14. 2 Mark x. 15. 



THE ANTECEDENT STATES 75 

area we must not overlook the fact of the per- 
petual, though perhaps imperceptible, contribu- 
tions of the other. It should be distinctly 
borne in mind that we are only following the 
predominant drift. In the consecutive order of 
Christian experience some states never appear in 
consciousness at all. Other states seem to have 
no elements but such as are clearly in conscious- 
ness. Several states in succession seem to spring 
from each other in causal sequence. One state 
arises from its predecessor in consciousness as a 
logical and necessary consequent. The key to 
the psychological study of Christian experience 
is the accurate discernment of the causal capacity 
of a psychical state in relation to the state 
immediately subsequent. This fact obtains 
among the antecedents of Christian experience 
as well as among the states of the experience it- 
self. 

The distinct predisposition, which we have 
seen to arise in consciousness, takes on in its 
turn a causal function. It has 
thecal ent t0 every appearance of actually pro- 
ducing a direct consequent condi- 
tion in consciousness. Under proper influences 
and instruction a resultant state at once appears. 
Predisposition for naturally ripens into assent to 
the Gospel. This is the simple reception of the 
Gospel of Christ as a fact. There is no question- 



76 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

ing of its truth. The psychic attitude is one of 
unresisting acknowledgment of its verities. It 
is a quiescent state of consent. It has points of 
distinct formulation in consciousness. By an 
examination of these we get a definite view of 
the content of this state. 

This assent to the Gospel is the acceptance of 
its divine source. It is from God. Its plan is 
points of Formula- God's plan ; its forces are God's 
source (I) Divine f° rces ; its commandments are 
Acknowledged. God's laws. God is behind it all. 
He conceived the great measure. He executed 
its wonderful scenes. He revealed its truth. 
In the child-thought God moves in the whole 
magic panorama of the gospel narrative. Its 
scenes are clothed with the halo of divine Pres- 
ence. In the thought of maturer years the 
glamour of childhood imagery fades out but 
the essence of the assent remains unmodified. 
That assent is the positive acceptance of the 
divine origin of the gospel movement. Jesus 
is the divinely sent Saviour of men. The Cross 
holds the rescue of the soul from its sin by the 
power of God. The Gospel is what it purports 
to be, the method of God for the salvation and 
spiritual development of man. 

The assent to the Gospel is also the acknowl- 
edgment of its right to claim unqualified 
obedience. The consciousness that holds the 



THE ANTECEDENT STATES 77 

consent to the Gospel's divine source cannot stop 
short of the acceptance of its unquestionable au- 
thority. In such a mind the Gos- 
(») Right to obedi- pe i nas an a d m itted right to rule ; 

ence Admitted. ■*■ ° ' 

its sovereignty is instantly con- 
ceded as an inevitable logical sequence. Con- 
science is clear and positive. Age modifies this 
fact in no degree. The postulation in thought 
of the Gospel's divine origin essentially carries 
with it an all-embracing affirmation of the right 
of that Gospel to direct the life in its most trivial 
deed. 

In this situation the soul is, perhaps, for the 
first time brought face to face with clearly 

defined duty. God has spoken ; 
issues in Balance, the soul acknowledges His voice. 

Will it obey His commands? 
An instant of supreme significance has come to 
the spiritual life. Either one of two issues, 
directly opposite in their nature, may arise out 
of this stage. The conceded right to obedience 
does not carry with it the actual act of obedi- 
ence. If the life of the child, under proper 
guidance, moves right on into simple obedience 
there proceeds a series of states in Christian ex- 
perience which will be surveyed in detail in 
another part of our discussion and will only 
thus be alluded to here. 1 

1 Part I, Chapter VI. 



78 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

If, on the other hand, the child, under ill 
guidance or no guidance at all, disobeys the 
Gospel to which it assents, then 
foobe y Refusal there arises at once in conscious- 
ness another state characterized by 
its one dominant attitude of refusal to obey. It 
is the human will set against the divine will. 
It is the action of the inherent power of the 
human soul to reject the known command and 
the felt impulse of God. In the child this is 
meagrely comprehended. But whether or not 
the enormity of the deed be understood its 
disastrous nature is in no measure modified. It 
is a distinct, positive act in consciousness. The 
soul knows the will of God and deliberately re- 
fuses to do that will, or does other than that 
will. The act may be never so trivial but if it 
be sufficient to align the soul in its relation to 
the known will of God as refusing to act in 
accordance therewith, it becomes a momentous 
determinative factor in the spiritual life. It 
may be merely the passing whim of the child, 
capricious with undisciplined tendencies, but if 
it takes shape in consciousness as a positive 
refusal to obey it is fatal to the primal relation 
of acceptance with God. The necessary steps 
of its rise make clear its real content and nature. 
These steps are three and occur in the order in 
which we shall consider them. 



THE ANTECEDENT STATES 79 

It is very difficult, if not altogether impossi- 
ble, to place in time the instant when the first 
contact with inducement to wrong; 

Steps in Formula- ° 

tion: (i) Rise of occurs. This, however, may be 
truthfully said, that it doubtless 
comes when desire finds itself face to face with 
adverse gospel precept or ideal, when sudden 
arousal of as yet undisciplined passion plunges 
the soul unexpectedly upon the utmost limit of 
right, or when seductive fascination appeals to 
otherwise good impulse to overstep proper in- 
dulgence. " Every man is tempted when he is 
drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." l 
The child soul is a cluster of untrained ap- 
petencies and impulses. It finds itself in a 
strange new world. All is to be learned by 
severe experience. The very nature of tempta- 
tion is unsuspected. Notwithstanding this the 
temptation loses none of its peril. It ceases not 
to be the moment when the immediate future of 
the individual, immature as that individual 
may be, swings in the balance. All the interests 
of its immediate relations to God are at stake. 
The course of the movement we are following 
just now involves this rise of temptation. It 
is the instant that foreruns the refusal to 
obey and is a part of the process included 
in that state. It is one of the steps in the act 

1 James i. 14. 



80 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

by which the moral disaster of sin enters the 
life. 

It scarcely needs to be said here that there is 
nothing wrong in the mere presence of tempta- 
tion. The wrong begins the mo- 

Distbldfence. ment there is yielding to the 
temptation. The least voluntary 
conformity to the temptation is an act of dis- 
obedience, and this is the next step composing 
this state of refusal to obey. It is a positive going 
over to evil. It is the instant of the breakage 
•of inborn alliance with God. It is the act of 
the separation of the soul from its native, filial 
relationship to God. However crude and im- 
mature may be the apprehension of the nature 
of the act it matters not ; so long as it is 
recognized in the consciousness of the child as 
being the rejection of the will of God it has 
every essential of an act of disobedience. Here 
lies the core of this entire state. It is the 
distinct rejection of the divine will as the law 
of conduct in a single item of action. It is the 
resistance of all the inducements and impulsions 
to obedience brought to bear upon the soul and 
the actual choice and deed of violation of holy 
precept. This distinct act constitutes another 
step in the formulation of the state under con- 
sideration. 

The instant the act of disobedience occurs all 



THE ANTECEDENT STATES 81 

the influences to good surge in upon the soul 
and besiege it to retrace its course. God lets no 

soul drift away from Him without 
^ Q ^ d esistance thoroughgoing, persistent effort to 

win it back to paths of right and 
peace. If the attitude of refusal to obey be 
maintained, it is so because of continued, un- 
yielding resistance to God. The child-life be- 
comes confirmed in sin by repeated acts of dis- 
obedience and persistence in refusal to obey. 
The established spiritual attitude of the life now 
becomes that of resistance to God. It braces it- 
self against Him ; it hardens itself to His in- 
fluences. It deafens itself to His appeals. It is 
perpetually on the alert to circumvent all ap- 
proaches that would bring it back to Him. It 
bolsters itself in its attitude of disobedience by 
every possible reinforcement. Thus by all 
available means, step by step, the life is fortified 
in its position of refusal to obey and passes over 
into a more or less confirmed condition of sin. 

Refusal of obedience to accepted divine 
authority, by the very structure of the moral 

nature, generates an immediate 
slnsVofsin. anc * distinct sense of sin. There 

arises in consciousness a definite 
recognition that sin has become an accepted part 
of the life. It is present as an admitted and 
entertained reality. Assent to the Gospel, ac- 



82 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

companied by resistance to its commands, thus 
issues by inevitable sequence in a conscious state 
of sin. There is a positive lapse from the peaceful 
condition prior to the act into a discordant mal- 
adjustment by reason of the presence of sin. 
That presence pollutes and perverts the whole 
conscious area. At the instant that the soul, for 
the first time in its life, asserts its power of re- 
jection of acknowledged duty, at such instant 
the sense of sin is born in consciousness. This 
sense at once defines itself by developing certain 
distinct conditions in consciousness. 

The moral judgment clearly affirms the wrong. 
There is the vivid perception of being arrayed 
Defining against the sense of duty and, 

conditions : back of duty, the will of God. A 

(i) Condemnation. " 

sentence of self-censure for the act 
takes shape in the soul. There is a pronounced 
gloom of self-condemnation. A depressing 
weight of disapproval pervades the conscious- 
ness. An ever-recurring oppressiveness of guilt 
shadows the heart. An undertone of sadness 
runs parallel with life's course, which ever and 
anon breaks out into clear and sombre tones, 
swelling like the cadences of a dirge through 
the solitudes of the soul. This condemnation, 
thus lived with, becomes a chronic spiritual, 
pathological condition. It is a slow fever, con- 
suming the life and making the spirit to toss 



THE ANTECEDENT STATES 83 

and thirst as in a long dark night. It is the 
soul's ceaseless condemnation of itself for its re- 
jection of duty. 

This sense defines itself further by an evident 

effort to mitigate its discomfort by a seductive 

compromise. It takes to itself a 

(a) intent palliative. An undefined limita- 

of Return. * 

tion of disobedience is proposed. 
The sense of wrongness extorts the deliberate 
formulation of an intent to some time cease the 
sin, accept the Gospel in outward confession and 
obey its commands. This intent is itself a point 
of definition of the sense of sin it seeks to pacify. 
The call for the opiate is a defining symptom of 
the disease and a reliable index of the pain. 
Countless numbers, in every generation of Chris- 
tian civilization, have gone the full length of 
these antecedent states but have never entered 
into the real experiences of the Christian life. 
They assent to the claims of Jesus Christ ; refuse 
to conform to His precepts ; carry with them a 
perpetual sense of condemnation ; mitigate the 
inner revolt by an indefinite intent of future ac- 
ceptance. 

Such are the antecedents of that widely pre- 
vailing type of Christian experience occurring 
when sin has become a positive factor in the 
life. These antecedents take on varying modi- 
fications according to the environments of social 



84: STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

and home life. The aim has been to present 

them in their general typical form* We have 

thus come to the very threshold of 

Arrival at cata- those more or less convulsive or 

clysmic States. 

cataclysmic states of experience 
which characterize the inner life of the Chris- 
tian whenever he enters that life after a period 
of pronounced disobedience to the Gospel and 
resistance to God. 



Ill 

THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 

{See Diagram III) 

The sense of sin, when once it has become 
clearly defined in consciousness, if ever removed 

entails psychic cataclysm. The 
c a a^ady°sm Through more intense and profound its 

presence, the more pronounced will 
be the cataclysm. " Divine grace and help are 
always needed and by all alike, but conversion 
as an event in conscious experience is needed only 
for those who from evil training or from will- 
ful transgression have turned away from God." * 
" We have seen that in a favourable environ- 
ment, gracious influences steal in upon the soul 
and insensibly mould it towards a divine har- 
mony, but that where these influences are lack- 
ing the soul becomes encased in a network, 
through which it can only break by a supreme 
effort, some deep stirring of the springs of life. 
And this same effort of the will brings the soul 
to God as well as the slow and insensible mov- 
ings of a quieter experience." 2 We now enter 

1 Bowne, " The Christian Life," p. 116. 
3 Granger, " The Soul of a Christian," p. 64. 

86 



86 STATES OF CHKISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

upon that phase of Christian experience covering 
the drastic and convulsive removal of sin which 
has thus become more or less deeply entrenched 
in the life. 

This experience varies through a wide range. 

The temperament of the person, the quality of 

the sin, the religious schooling of 

Variations in , i -i • • -i i .i • -i • , 

states. the individual, the immediate en- 

vironment of the experience, all of 
these factors, in infinite variety of combination, 
contribute to the production of experiences of 
this class in which no two are identical in every 
respect. However, in all this variance, the suc- 
cession of component states that go to make up 
any single experience is rigorously uniform. 
The intensity and prominence of the individual 
states furnish the elements of variability. 
Tables, prepared by painstaking students of the 
complicated phenomena, 1 harmonize with gen- 
eral observation and conclusively demonstrate 
such variability on the testimony of sufficiently 
large numbers of respondents to differing series 
of pertinent questions. In some experiences 
certain states are so feeble and colourless that 
without the most careful scrutiny of conscious- 
ness they would seem not to have been present 
at all. They occur in such close proximity to 
other states which are so violent in action and so 

1 Starbuok, Coe, et al. 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 87 

dazzling in vividness that these feebler states are 
dwarfed into comparative insignificance. In 
other experiences the states in which marked in- 
tensity appears are exactly reversed : the vivid 
in the former experience are colourless here. 
Between these two extremes numberless and in- 
describable variations lie. 

We are not attempting, however, the descrip- 
tive delineation of all possible experiences in the 
life of the Christian ; such would 
Treatise in this ^e a hopeless and needless under- 
taking. What we are essaying to 
do is to detect and define, as far as the facts now 
in hand will permit, the scientific succession of 
demonstrable psychic states in the typical Chris- 
tian experience and to give them their proper 
location in the area of psychic activity. This is 
a possible though difficult task and its complete 
accomplishment, whenever that shall have been 
fully achieved, will be of profound import and 
inestimable value to the Christian world. We 
are not proposing a museum of the curiosities of 
the spiritual life, but the concise portrayal of 
what takes place in consciousness, with greater 
or less vividness, and in subconsciousness, with 
more or less conscious evidence, in this most 
convulsive phase of Christian experience, 
wherein positive sin, its guilt and its power, are 
uprooted and eradicated from the life. 



88 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

Our study of the Antecedent States, in the 

preceding chapter, left us in the state designated 

as the Sense of Sin, its condemna- 

Awa d ited Cataclysm tion having been placated by a 
more or less clearly defined intent 
of acceptance of the Gospel at some time in the 
future. In this antecedent attitude the major 
multitudes of the adult Christian world are to- 
day awaiting the advent of a movement suffi- 
ciently catalysmic to carry the personality on 
into the strenuous states of an effective Christian 
experience. How does the soul pass from this 
dormant antecedent condition into the actual 
states that characterize the experience itself? 
Our effort is now to trace this passage. 

The antecedent sense of sin, blunted and ren- 
dered inert by persistent procrastination of de- 
cisive action, has simply no out- 
fcious S ^at n e S Con " come in itself, possesses no energy 
of initiative. It is, therefore, on 
the plane of consciousness productive of no sub- 
sequent state whatever, except as it furnishes the 
inert material upon which extraneous agency 
may operate. The initiative of further move- 
ment clearly comes from somewhat beyond the 
limits of consciousness. We have evidently 
come to a well-defined break in the superficial 
continuity of this movement. A distinct chasm 
here separates conscious states ; but close discern- 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 89 

ment makes it clear that the path of the move- 
ment is not lost. The process itself continues 
unbroken though in order to follow it we find 
that we must penetrate into the region underly- 
ing consciousness. This course is made neces- 
sary by the nature of the phenomena that next 
appear in consciousness. In order to make their 
presence intelligible we must trace their rise to 
the region whence they emanate. 

It is the testimony of those who have entered 
upon Christian experience from a period of sin 
that there comes into the life a 
t^nfo f rs!r ic " strange, profound, more or less 
cataclysmic action. It seems like 
some potent, disconnected, sub-surface move- 
ment. The conscious area, hitherto compara- 
tively calm and smooth, becomes disturbed and 
ebulitional from beneath. The unusually dis- 
quieting cause appears nowhere in the region of 
consciousness. Up from the underlying depths 
springs, sometimes suddenly and sometimes 
gradually, an agitation that often rocks and 
surges through the whole conscious being as by 
the upheaval of deep-running, seismic tides. 
This profound spiritual disturbance takes shape 
in consciousness as an acute and pungent revela- 
tion of personal sin. 

The dormant antecedent sense of sin, in this 
convulsive process, seems to have been seized, 



90 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

drawn down into the subconscious region and 

there enlarged and intensified a thousandfold. 

When thrust back into conscious- 

fon«i t ou e s. Sub " ness ^ nas become a new, distinct 

and clamorous state. The mere 
sense of sin has been transformed into an im- 
perious conviction for sin. How this change 
has been produced does not appear in conscious- 
ness. The most astute person experiencing it 
can shed no light upon the process be he ever 
so observant. All he can affirm is that a new 

and unaccountable awakening has 
By the Hoiy spirit, come to him concerning sin. The 

Scriptures, however, attribute this 
subconscious agitation in conviction to the Holy 
Spirit. 

A very early instance of this kind of ac- 
tion by the Holy Spirit is seen in the incident 

at Shushan. 1 While the exiled 

Scriptural Indica- 
tions: case of people in the provinces were pros- 

Ahctsucrus 

trate in agonizing prayer before 
God, the king, Ahasuerus, having issued his 
edict of murderous slaughter, was tossing out 
a disturbed night on his royal couch. "On 
that night could not the king sleep." 2 He 
knew not the cause of his sleepless agitation ; 
but the recorded coincidence of the desperate 
appeal of an imperiled people and the strange 

1 Esther iv. 16. * Esther vi. 1. 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 91 

disturbance in the spirit of the king, culminat- 
ing in the reversal of the iniquitous edict, is un- 
questionable in its evidence of the subconscious 
activity in the work of conviction by the an- 
swering divine Presence. 

On the day of Pentecost, when multitudes 
cried out in violent contrition, " What must we 
do?" the Apostle declared that 
At Pentecost. that tumultuous awakening was 

the fulfillment of the prophet's 
utterance, averring that the Holy Spirit was the 
source of such overwhelming conviction as that 
which brought three thousand people to begin 
the Christian life in a single day. 1 

Christ positively affirms of the Holy Spirit 
that " He shall convict the world of sin." 2 The 
great Teacher of the facts of the 
chnst^sAffir. spiritual world thus explicitly de- 
fines one function of the Holy 
Spirit as being the generation within the con- 
sciousness of man of this conviction for sin. 
While the soul may stand in wonder and per- 
plexity at its own strange agitation and anguish 
over sin, Christ would have it clearly under- 
stood that underneath all such spiritual dis- 
turbance the Holy Spirit is the active energy 
fulfilling the work He is among men to ac- 
complish. 
1 Aoti ii, 41. 9 John xvi, 8 (K. V.). 



92 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

In all aggressive Christian work these evident 
processes are constantly present, in confirmation 

of this position, when, in sequence 
crrrobo'rltL. to persistent agonizing prayer by 

believing hearts, powerful con- 
viction for sin has come unbidden and dis- 
connected with all discernible causes. Whole 
communities have been strangely wrought upon 
by pervasive conviction for sin when no ob- 
servable cause was active and when it became 
afterwards known that distinct united prayer 
had been persistently urged by a few believing 
hearts issuing in such answering action of the 
Holy Spirit as we are here contemplating. 
Frequently in great public awakenings it has 
been observed that vigour of conviction has 
varied exactly with the intensity of the quiet 
appeal of Christian people for the convicting 
Spirit. Marked individual instances are on 
credible record wherein profound conviction, 
without discernible cause, has come upon 
minds, mature and gifted, when it has been 
later ascertained that concerted prayer, within 
a solicitous and believing group, was being 
urgently offered for the specific object thus 
realized. 

It is sufficient for our present purposes to 
accept these declarations of Scripture and these 
ever-recurring corroborative instances as clearly 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 93 

identifying this profound subconscious agitation 
in conviction for sin as the work of the Holy 
Spirit. 

Thus across the break in the surface continuity 

of this movement, occasioned by the occurrence 

of this subconscious stage, we step 

state: Conviction f th Antecedent States into the 

tor bin. 

first of the Cataclysmic States of 
Christian experience, which is the state of more 
or less intense conviction for sin. The action 
of the Holy Spirit in producing this state of 
conviction for sin, as we have seen, lies entirely 
without consciousness, as there is consciousness 
neither of the person of the Holy Spirit nor of 
His operation in the distinct acts of His work. 
The resultant state of conviction, on the other 
hand, is one lying entirely within consciousness. 
It may, therefore, be concisely defined and its 
distinguishing phenomena, as they take shape 
in consciousness, may be quite fully delineated. 
Such delineation must, however, be given a 
wide latitude for variation. Every instance of 
conviction for sin has its own focal point of 
greatest intensity. As these differing focal 
points shade off towards each other in intensity 
they give an endless variety of colour and de- 
gree to this state. Conviction for sin is thus 
seen in no two individuals to be exactly alike. 
The focal points in consciousness, where convic- 



94 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

tion for sin centres its greatest intensity, may be 
more or less loosely given as three. We will 
examine them in some detail. 

Conviction for sin, in certain instances, takes 
shape in consciousness as an all-absorbing vision 
ru ^ , o • , °f tne heinousness of sin. All of 

Three Focal Points : 

(i) Heinousness the blackness of sin stands out 
with oppressive distinctness. lis 
ingratitude, its defiance of a loving God, its 
poisonous venom amid the sweetness and purity 
of unsullied life, its compulsion of the appalling 
sacrifice of Calvary, its illusive falsity luring 
with seductive fascination to inevitable anguish 
and loss, all of these phases of sin come out, in 
such instances, in peculiar and repulsive vivid- 
ness. Under a startling and sometimes shock- 
ing glare sin is seen to be a thing of horrid 
mien. One sees oneself in a sickening light of 
shame as having cherished and committed such 
an heinous act as sin. The soul loathes itself 
for such a course. 

Conviction for sin, at other times, centres 

itself with greatest violence about a sense of 

burden of guilt. The law of God 

W Burden of j g ^^ ^ ^ gQ()d ^ j^ j^ 

requirements are just. Sin openly 
tramples upon it. The wrongness of this course 
which has been pursued in sin crushes down 
upon consciousness like an unbearable weight. 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 95 

The heart feels itself culpable in that measure 
that it has driven anew the nails into the 
quivering hands and feet of its crucified Lord. 
The burden of the guilt is smothering as it 
presses down over the life. There is no self- 
defense, but a stifling heartache that sin was 
ever done. Guilt grows relentlessly heavier 
and drags upon consciousness like an intolerable 
incubus. There is wrung from the agonized 
heart the cry to God : " Against Thee, Thee 
only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy 
sight." x 

Conviction for sin, in frequent cases, develops 
its highest intensity in a fear of sin's effects. 

The ruinous work of sin is thrown 
( 3 ) Fear of Effects, under an amazing illumination. 

It is seen to poison the soul. It 
corrodes the powers. It enervates the energies. 
It destroys the peace. It diminishes efficiency, 
limits development and circumscribes success. 
It stores up remorse and anguish. It paves the 
way to ultimate spiritual ruin. It bars the gates 
of heaven and is the harbinger of eternal doom 
to the spirit of man. It spreads its baleful con- 
tagion to others and sweeps like a pestilence 
upon innocent multitudes. Such an illumina- 
tion awakens alarm. Fear of sin's deplorable 
effects grows intense. In the more pronounced 

^sa. li. 4. 



96 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

instances the soul cowers in terror before the re- 
vealed results of its sin. This anticipation of 
the consequences of sin is fanned into a burning 
anguish of heart. 

Conviction for sin develops itself in con- 
sciousness at some one of these focal points of in- 
tensity, or with a measure of 
PivoTai state! equality at all of them, or at some 
one of the infinite number of 
blendings of them of which their endless pos- 
sible combinations are susceptible. Thus de- 
veloped, conviction for sin becomes both a crucial 
and a pivotal state. It is crucial because it, in a 
vital way, gives tone to the entire subsequent 
experience. If conviction for sin is clear-cut, 
positive, intense, then every subsequent state is 
placed on a high level of vigour and definite- 
ness ; if it is dim, uncertain, tame or sluggish, 
then, if any subsequent states at all arise from 
it, they are sure to be weak and vague, the entire 
experience being colourless and powerless. This 
state is pivotal because it holds two possible 
alternative issues, to either one of which the life 
may swing. If the individual 
Alternative resists this conviction for sin, with 

Issues. ' 

deliberate and persistent volition, 
it may be practically expunged as a state of con- 
sciousness. The disturbance on account of sin 
diminishes and finally ceases. However much 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 97 

the Holy Spirit may act in the subconscious He 
no longer produces agitation and conviction in 
the area of consciousness. The life swings away 
to an irreligious career. If the individual offers 
no resistance to conviction for sin, but encourages 
the impulses aroused, the movement passes from 
state to state in the order of an invariable, 
progressive sequence. The life swings upward 
to a religious career. 

Conviction for sin, having overcome all voli- 
tional resistance, takes on a causal function in 
the sequence of spiritual states ; it 
Repentance. cannot abide alone. In such con- 

viction, by analytical study of its 
content, are discoverable all of the essential ele- 
ments to project into the life the subsequent and 
inevitable state of repentance for sin. Its dis- 
covery would be a scientific certainty were it at- 
tainable by no other processes than the simple 
psychical reactions from the antecedent spiritual 
conditions. Permit genuine virile conviction 
for sin unresisted place in consciousness and 
prompt repentance for sin follows as its im- 
mediate product as naturally as daylight follows 
dawn. Such repentance for sin takes shape in 
consciousness under three distinct constituent 
elements. In the definition and combination of 
these we construct this state of Christian expe- 
rience as it appears in consciousness. 



98 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

The sensibilities are not brought into action 
at will. No degree of volitional exertion, how- 
ever strenuous or drastic, can give 
Three Elements : Y ^ Qe ^ genuine emotion. Feeling 

(i) Sorrow for Sin. ° © 

acts by rigid psychic law. There 
must be present in the mental field perceptions 
or conceptions of a suitable nature in order to 
arouse emotional activity. Such mental condi- 
tions, however, being actually present, correlated 
emotions spring spontaneously into action, their 
intensity varying with the nature and vividness 
of the mental states and the temperament of the 
individual. In other words, emotion is a psy- 
chical reaction occurring on the occasion of the 
presence in the mind of definite, correlated, per- 
ceptive states. Conviction for sin is a group of 
such perceptions. The exposures of sin made in 
conviction, its heinousness, its guilt, its ruin, all 
form an array of perceptions essentially eruptive 
in their effect upon the emotional susceptibili- 
ties. Under their action the dominant emotion 
aroused is a profound sorrow for sin. This 
emotion varies from calm regretful heartache to 
such violence of agony as shakes the whole being 
like a tempest. This grief that the sinful act 
has been done fills consciousness with a pungent 
anguish and seizes hold of the soul with an over- 
whelming power. Remorse, pitiless and stormy, 
many times lashes the soul into a frenzy border- 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 99 

ing upon despair. It is the heart's emotional 
revulsion from the committal of the accursed 
thing that sin is now seen to be. Tears flow in 
copious flood ; the soul groans in the bitterness 
of its sorrow ; the spirit gropes in helpless agony 
for relief. This is not a spasm of overwrought 
nerves. It is not a freak of distorted hallucina- 
tions. It is the profound, orderly, though often 
violent, arousal of the emotional sensibilities 
under the vivid and alarming revelations made 
in conviction for sin. 

Such genuine sorrow becomes a powerful pro- 
pulsive energy. The act of sin, of the wrong- 
ness of which the soul is now 

(a) Abandonment • /» n • tit 

ofSiQ< so painfully conscious, suddenly 

comes to be a thing never to be re- 
peated. Repentance is not merely an emotion 
of sorrow. It is also a volition, a deliberate de- 
termination to forsake the thing, the fearful 
nature of which has been perceived in convic- 
tion and on account of which such anguish of 
sorrow has come. The emotion generates the 
motive force. It energizes the will to forsake 
the sin. Sorrow for sin thus begets a resolution 
to abandon it. The soul is set in repentance to 
get away from sin. Its entire impulse is to 
shake itself free. Repentance of this sort, such 
as springs from conviction by the Holy Spirit, is 
a sorrow so sincere, so intense that it stops noth- 



100 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

ing short of the entire abandonment of the 
last vestige of sin. 

This is not the repentance of reformation ; it 
is the repentance of salvation. It is not a re- 
pentance towards oneself; it is a 
0) Return to God. repentance towards God. It is a 
sorrow for sin because it rejects 
God's will, defeats God's grace, because, in a 
word, it has come as a ruinous presence between 
the soul and God. Repentance is, therefore, the 
abandonment of sin in order to get back to God. 
At the core of this repentance is the soul's hum- 
ble, sorrowing return to God. In it the con- 
scious personality turns its back on sin, with 
tear-dimmed eyes faces towards God and makes 
penitent approach to Him. It lands the soul at 
the foot of the Cross which is the supreme ex- 
ponent of the pardoning mercy of God. In the 
bitterness of conviction the soul knows its sin ; 
but such knowledge of sin communicates no 
power to sever itself therefrom. In repentance 
the soul sorrows over sin's alarming presence ; 
but such sorrow develops no power to dismiss 
the sin. The only help is in God. Christian 
repentance is only complete when it has brought 
the sorrowing soul back to God. 

The state of repentance in Christian expe- 
rience is but part of a vitally connected trans- 
action. The movement stops not here ; it pro- 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 101 

ceeds to complete the transaction. Mere aban- 
donment of sin leaves the life without explicit 

committal as to its course for the 
foTsVrv C ice. enant future. In consistency with itself 

it instantly constructs the next 
state in the experience. Repentance for sin con- 
tains within itself initiative energies in action 
that, to make their action complete, must formu- 
late a covenant for service. The potent impulses, 
arising in the turbulent perceptions of conviction 
for sin, having crowded the soul in repentance 
to the positive abandonment of sin, now urge on 
to committal in unqualified pledge of obedience. 
The heart that avers abstinence from sin is car- 
ried on by its very momentum in such action to 
a pledge of loyalty in service. Springing up 
from the subconscious the accelerating impul- 
sions of the Holy Spirit imperceptibly assist, 
without doubt, in this process ; but in the state 
of repentance there are energies evidently pres- 
ent and amply adequate to the projection of this 
new state of Christian experience now under 
consideration. The covenant for service is the 
oath of allegiance to the kingdom of God. It is 
the volitional and explicit conveyance of the en- 
tire being and life over to the will of God. It 
is the giving back to God of what sin has wrested 
from Him. It is the only part the soul really 
has in undoing the wretched work that it 



102 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

through sin has done. There can be no ap- 
proach to God for salvation without such definite 
all-embracing surrender to His will. If this is 
withheld the experience stops and never pro- 
ceeds until this point is yielded. Such cove- 
nant for service formulates itself in two compo- 
nent acts. In the examination of these we gain 
a comprehensive view of what this state holds. 

There is in this covenant the explicit dedica- 
tion of the inmost and utmost self to the 

Two Component Sei>Vice ° f G ° d « The e g°> the 

Acts : (i) Dedica- personality in its profoundest in- 

tionofSelf. £. J . *\ 

dividuality, gives itself over to 
God. It shall henceforth will what He wills, 
think what He thinks, love what He loves, do 
what He does, so far as it knows and is able. 
There is not permitted to remain a vestige of 
reservation of the being to itself. Not the faint- 
est shadow of rebellion is allowed to rest any- 
where in all the area of consciousness. The 
whole domain of being is transferred to the 
ownership and dominion of God. The veriest 
discoverable flaw in this solemn compact bars 
the whole proceedings. The most penetrating 
study of Christian experience corroborates these 
sweeping assertions. Neither can God nor His 
exact processes be evaded in this vital transac- 
tion. Every last palpitating brain-cell passes 
under His unerring inspection. If it deliber- 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 103 

ately harbours the minutest nucleus of resistance, 
all is off. No process known to man is more sen- 
sitive than this ; none more appallingly exact. 

There is in this covenant, furthermore, the 
explicit dedication of all of self's belongings to 
the service of God. In a way this 
2£3^ DBC| is involved in what has been al- 
ready stated ; for, strictly speak- 
ing, when self goes over to God there goes with 
it all that self holds. But in our looser common 
thinking possessions are too often apart from 
personality, and title to the former does not 
necessarily go with the transfer of the latter. 
No graver error has crept into the struggle for 
a satisfactory Christian experience. The cove- 
nant for service that satisfies the requirements 
of this state is one that includes the dedication 
of belongings to God's service. Family, time, 
property, position, influence, all that in any 
sense pertains to the being though not an inte- 
gral part thereof, all is included in the terms of 
this covenant. Any deliberate, purposeful with- 
holding of the smallest fragment of these is a 
fatal barrier beyond which experience cannot 
go until it is removed. Much unpurposed self- 
ishness and many unintended defects have oc- 
curred without checking, for an instant, the 
movement of this experience. Nevertheless the 
intent must hold unqualified dedication of be- 



104 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

longings to the service of God. Thus all we are 
and all we control are gathered into this exact- 
ing covenant with God. 

The soul has now reached its limit. It has 
abandoned its sin ; it has returned to God ; it has 
surrendered itself to God's service ; 
by a Faith. cceptance it has dedicated its entire belong- 
ings to divine use. It can do no 
more ; yet guilt is still upon it. The power of 
sin is still over it. The sorrow of sin still fills 
consciousness with pain and darkness. It is ut- 
terly helpless; but just here the inspired word 
of God meets it. That word assures that the 
soul that will forsake its sin and turn unto God 
He will abundantly pardon ; that whosoever 
will accept Christ by faith shall be saved ; that 
the penitent, surrendered heart must be saved by 
grace through faith ; that its mere deeds are of 
no avail. The vital instant of saving faith is 
now on. The soul, having done all that it can 
do in effort for relief, in view of the assurances 
of the word of God, finds that its last and only 
resort is simply to open itself to the promised 
work of grace. There appears in consciousness 
the next state in Christian experience which is 
the receptive state of acceptance by faith. It is 
the voluntary, expectant opening up of the en- 
tire being to the saving work of God. It may 
aid us in getting a clear view of this state to 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 105 

study in detail the distinct stages that mark its 
development. 

The seeking heart that has surrendered every- 
thing it is and has to the service of God has 
come face to face with the promises 

Three Stages : x 

(i) Application of God. If they are to mean any- 

of Promise. . , . . . . , . . , 

thing it is driven to a personal ap- 
plication of them. The soul to be saved is it- 
self ; the sin to be forgiven is its own sin ; the 
powers to be changed are its own polluted and 
shackled faculties. The promises cover its case ; 
they are, therefore, its own. It affirms these 
promises as given to itself. It wrests them from 
the impersonal and general and makes them 
personal and specific. It makes distinct and 
audible the present reiteration of the promise 
to its own individuality. It ceases all evasion, 
and urges no longer exceptional conditions in 
its case such as littleness, unworthiness or ex- 
ceeding sinfulness. Whoever it is and whatever 
its condition, it accepts God's promises as given 
to itself personally. 

These promises are the assurances of divine 

work. They pledge this work as now actually 

done. The soul has no part in it, 

(a) Cessation . • Ti ' /. . • 

of Effort. except to receive. Its function 

is now to be acted upon. It is to 

relax every muscle, to be perfectly pliable. 

Absolute passivity in the divine hand is the es- 



106 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

sential thing. Repentant, surrendered, accept- 
ing the word, it stretches itself upon the under- 
lying promises, as upon an operating table, and 
awaits the action of the divine Surgeon and 
Healer. Without question, without exertion, 
with every door of the soul wide open to the in- 
coming, wonder-working Saviour, this is the 
seeking soul's attitude of acceptance. It is the 
psychic life putting itself unreservedly at the 
disposal of the immanent divine Presence and 
Power. It is the prodigal falling upon the 
Father's bosom and into the Father's arms. 

The final stage is the intense focus of all that 

has gone before. In it faith drops all future 

tense. The seeking soul no longer 

Fuififiment ion ° f sa y s > " The promise is for me and 
God will keep it." It no longer 
declares, " I cease my effort and wait for God to 
do His work in me." The language of the soul 
now is, " I have met the conditions of the 
promise ; God is true to His word ; He does the 
work this instant." It is the positive assertion of 
fulfillment. This is the completion of the state 
of faith ; it is the audacity of faith's assurance. 
It is absolutely vital to the whole process. 
Without it experience goes no further. The 
absence of this bars the depths of the soul from 
God. With this all of the profundities of the 
psychical life are thrown open to the uninter- 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 107 

rupted operation of God's waiting purpose. It 
is the simple triumph of trust. It is the heart's 
unfaltering assertion of divine faithfulness. It 
is faith's exultant claim of the accomplished 
work of God. 

Here one division of the Cataclysmic States 
naturally ends. The effort of the seeker ceases 

and the states through which he 
g|e™" g of passes in the process of seeking 

reach their culmination in the 
exercise of this faith of acceptance. 



IV 

THE CATACLYSMIC STATES {Continued) 
(See Diagram III) 

Faith is without direct sequence in conscious- 
ness. It possesses no energy of projection. In 
psychical exertion it has all the 
consdo^s states, elements that mark finality in 
stage. The promised action of 
Another is now awaited. The psychical process, 
on the plane of consciousness, has now exhausted 
itself. Extraneous help must now come or the 
whole movement ceases. All effort to do for 
self has ended ; the final act was to accept the 
fulfillment of the work promised. Here, there- 
fore, is no initiative ; continuity in conscious- 
ness absolutely stops. A definite gap occurs in 
the chain of conscious states in Christian ex- 
perience. Scientific investigation cannot flip- 
pantly leap this chasm that separates acceptance 
by faith from the next state that appears in con- 
sciousness. It must find out, if it can, what lies 
in the depths of this chasm. 1 

The continuity of the experimental movement 
is not really broken ; it only appears to be. The 

1 Starbuck, " Psychology of Religion," p. 90. 
108 



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THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 109 

chasm in consciousness has its active counter- 
part in subconsciousness. The path of the 
movement again dips completely 
process continued b e i ow the level of consciousness. 

in the Subconscious. 

Faith touches unseen forces opera- 
tive in the underlying area. The process moves 
steadily on by the action of these potent energies. 
Faith's explicit acceptance thus finds its response 
in the answering activities of the Holy Spirit, 
according to inspirational information, in a 
region where consciousness does not and cannot 
penetrate. Christ Himself did not attempt 
to lift the slightest fold in the coverings that 
conceal these depths. He only said, after refer- 
ring to inexplicable processes in the world of 
physical sense, " So is every one that is born of 
the Spirit." x " We speak that we do know and 
testify that we have seen." 2 The laboratory of 
the new birth is located in the region of subcon- 
sciousness. If we trace the process we must 
follow it by the dim, combined light of inference 
and inspiration until it emerges again into 
consciousness. The resort to automatism and 
sudden discharges of nervous energy in opening 
adolescent brain-areas, in the region of the sub- 
conscious, in explanation of this aspect of Chris- 
tian experience, is a piece of audacious assump- 
tion and such a complete ignoring of Scriptural 

1 John iii. 8. 8 John iii. 11. 



110 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

revelation that it is unworthy of extended con- 
sideration at this stage of our inquiry. 1 It will 
receive attention later on in our discussion. 2 

We follow, therefore, the path of this process 
into the depths of subconsciousness. Occur- 
rences are obscure ; illumination is 

L a p "luon Lightof mea g re - Nevertheless all is not 
darkness ; we do see, though it be 
like the ocean diver with a dim and somewhat fit- 
ful vision. Powerful causal processes are active 
in this region. We catch their outline as inspi- 
ration throws the glimmer of its illumination 
over them. We are shown that they are here, 
though their minute and exact details, we may 
admit, lie in the shadow. But to be able to 
definitely locate these transactions in the 
psychical area is an achievement of transcend- 
ant importance in our investigation. Knowing 
that they are here, we no longer enter upon 
vain and disheartening search for them else- 
where. Holding aloft the faint glow, shed forth 
by inspired utterance and inferential deduc- 
tions, we pass in this dim review the momentous 
occurrences that form the subconscious portion 
of this most cataclysmic state of Christian ex- 
perience. 

The instant faith touches its climax, in the 
assertion of the actual fulfillment of promise, 

1 Starbuck, " Psychology of Religion, " p. 107. 2 Part II. 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 111 

potent responsive activity begins in the subcon- 
scious. The immanent divine Presence has been 
Responsive occur- long waiting for this instant. He 
rencesinthesub- } ias k een striving, with infinite 

conscious: (i) For- <->' 

giveness for sin. patience, to produce this vital 
juncture. Having now arrived it is seized with 
eager immediateness. " Before they call I will 
answer." l The repentant, surrendered heart, 
the instant it opens itself by an assertive faith, 
is forgiven for its sin. This is the repeated 
assurance of Biblical promise. " He will 
abundantly pardon." 2 " He is faithful and 
just to forgive us our sins." 3 We are not con- 
scious of this act of forgiveness ; yet it must 
have place somewhere in the psychical field. 
It is not merely an abstract enactment of a gov- 
ernment at some remote heavenly seat of ex- 
ecutive action, as some seem to have fancied. 
Experimentally it is an act of the immanent 
divine Presence in the soul. It is a change of 
the divine attitude towards the human person- 
ality involved. Grieved, offended, condemning 
while loving, the very presence of God in such 
an attitude in the psychical area must give a 
perpetual sense of oppressiveness and burden. 
In forgiveness this whole attitude is instantly 
reversed. God puts the sin behind Him as far 
as the east is from the west ; it utterly disap- 

1 Isa. lxv. 24. 3 Isa. lv. 7. 8 1 John i. 7. 



112 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

pears from His view. The cause of the divine 
grief being gone, the attitude of the Holy 
Spirit in the soul is no longer a grieved one ; 
the sinful resistance having been abandoned, His 
attitude is no longer that of parental offense. 
The censurable evil choice and action having 
been renounced, the imperative attitude of dis- 
approval and blame is instantly dropped. The 
attitude of the divine Presence in the psychical 
life is now not one of grief but of joy, not one 
of offense but of sweet harmony, not one of 
censure but of approval. Such a change is a 
profound transaction in the psychical area. 
Forgiveness for sin must involve just this 
radical transposition of the divine attitude in 
the region of subconsciousness. The relief of 
psychical strain, in whatever degree unconscious 
as to its direct source, must be an exceedingly 
important factor in the psychical conditions. 

Forgiveness, as to its part in the psychical 

situation, has to do specifically, as we have seen, 

with the divine attitude towards 

(2) Cleansing from .-t • n i i T> j. • l_ J 

sin-s impurity. the sinful soul. But sin has done 
something more than to grieve 
and estrange God. The entire psychical tract 
has been sullied by it. It has carried with it a 
positive moral smut. Every power that has 
participated in it has been smeared by it. In- 
deed, the grime of its dirt has been worn into 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 113 

the very fibre of the spiritual structure. The 
very atmosphere of the psychic life is filled with 
the pervasive effluvia of this moral pollution 
that has come from sin's presence. The soul is 
deeply conscious of this spiritual impurity. 
The entire being is restless and unhappy under 
this persistent, indefinable sense of the con- 
tamination arising from voluntary contact 
with sin. 

Forgiveness does not touch this foul stain of 
sin ; but Scripture clearly affirms that, in an- 
swer to saving faith, this stain is 

Distinct from -i -i /» . • 

Forgiveness. cleansed away from every spot in 

all the psychical area. The blend- 
ing of this act with the change of the divine 
attitude in forgiveness is so close that they often 
in Scripture statement seem to be identical. 
Scripture does, however, make clear the occur- 
rence of both forgiveness and cleansing, and 
psychological study makes equally clear the es- 
sential distinction. God withdraws the embargo 
of His disapproval in forgiveness and He purges 
sin's pollution in cleansing. The assurance and 
description of both of these stages of the work of 
the Holy Spirit in the soul are so interwoven in 
Scripture that it is a difficult task to attempt to 
entirely unweave them. Fortunately we do not 
need to separate them. Let it be clearly under- 
stood that these acts are simultaneous but not 



114 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

identical. The acts imply each other ; forgive- 
ness carries cleansing with it. Whom God for- 
gives He cleanses as He forgives. " Though 
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as 
snow." ! "He is faithful and just to forgive us 
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteous- 
ness." 2 " The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, 
cleanseth us from all sin." 3 There is evidently 
set forth in these and similar utterances more 
than the cessation of the condemning attitude of 
God in forgiveness ; there is also an act of the 
purging away of the pollution of sin. 

How this cleansing is done no one knows. It 

is the wondrous divine washing of the spiritual 

being. It is, however, a work 

Its Method Un- i , ii v • i 

known. wrought upon the psychical pow- 

ers and conditions by the Holy 
Spirit. It occurs, therefore, somewhere within 
the psychical area, yet does not come within 
consciousness. The soul has no direct percep- 
tion of this divine act. It unquestionably fol- 
lows that here, within the region of subcon- 
sciousness, the gracious power of God so acts 
upon the psychical structure that all of the stain 
and smut of sin are purged away. The entire 
psychical field is made clean and pure. Some- 
how every unholy atom that sin's soiling touch 
has left on the soul is dissolved off and flushed 

1 Isa. i. 18. s 1 John i. 9. 3 1 John i. 7. 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 115 

away. Not only is the grieved attitude of God, 
as a factor in the psychical life, completely elim- 
inated by forgiveness, but the pollution of sin, 
adhering to the psychical being, is perfectly re- 
moved by this purifying action of the Holy 
Spirit. This evident subconscious process of 
purifying, in whatever degree unperceived by us, 
is a profound change wrought in the psychical 
area, and must give unmeasured relief from the 
defiling deposit of sin's polluting contacts. 

Under repeated sinful action the psychical 
structure becomes deeply perverted from normal 

conditions. Powers that should be 
itiNeed? eratlon: strong are weak ; others that 

should be subordinate are domi- 
nant. Impulses, proper in their place, are trans- 
posed and thrown into ruinous disorder. Voli- 
tional capacity is diverted and distorted so that 
a wonderful spiritual function, designed to co-act 
with God, defies Him. AfTectional activities are 
depraved, adhering to the material, the sinful, 
often the vicious. The whole spiritual fabric is 
awry. It has become hopelessly fixed in this 
fatal perversion from type. " The whole head is 
sick, the whole heart faint." 1 "The heart is 
deceitful above all things and desperately 
wicked." 2 The being is declared " dead in tres- 
passes and sins." 3 

1 Isa. i. 5. a Jer. xvii. 9. 8 Eph. ii. 1. 



116 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

Forgiveness, in its psychical aspects, is a 
change in the divine attitude from condemna- 
tion to favour. Cleansing is the 

Not Elsewhere • « . i , , „ 

Accomplished. purging away of the pollution of 
sin's contact. But these saving 
processes do not, in any degree, touch the funda- 
mental disorder and structural distortion that 
have been fastened upon the psychical being by 
continuous sinful action. In the profound 
depths of the subconscious life the Holy Spirit, 
in response to saving faith, lays hold upon the 
crippled, deformed, perverted powers, impulses 
and capacities, and reconstructs them. He 
straightens out the bent and tangled parts ; He 
lifts prostrated faculties from the prone into the 
upright ; He restores the normal force to im- 
pulse ; He reverses, purifies and exalts the affec- 
tions ; He reforms the appetencies and tastes ; 
He regenerates the entire spiritual being. Not 
the remotest fragment of the psychical structure 
escapes this transforming work ; the Holy Spirit 
permits no superficial, defective process. He 
leaves no unchanged vestiges of the old perverted 
conditions to brand His work with inadequacy 
and to harass the seeking soul He has promised 
to liberate. No portion, however seemingly 
trivial, of that regenerating work is either indif- 
ferently or imperfectly done. 

In all this wonderful achievement the Holy 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 117 

Spirit does not appear in consciousness. There 

is no direct perception of Him as a person ; nor 

is a single stroke of His actual 

wrought in the WO rk perceived in consciousness. 

Subconscious. r 

His profound activities do not, 
therefore, lie within the region of consciousness. 
Yet He handles psychical powers ; He works 
upon psychical energies and states ; and this 
work of regeneration lies somewhere within the 
psychical field. It, however, not being within 
the region of consciousness, must take place in 
the region of subconsciousness. Here, there- 
fore, is the underlying laboratory where are 
wrought radical remedial processes and struc- 
tural changes in the psychical being as por- 
trayed in explicit Scriptural utterances. " Create 
in me a clean heart, O God." * " Ye must be 
born again." 2 In respect to the inscrutable na- 
ture of these processes Christ says, after refer- 
ring to evidently inscrutable processes occurring 
in the natural world, " So is every one that is 
born of the Spirit." 3 " If any man be in Christ, 
he is a new creature ; old things are passed 
away ; behold, all things are become new." 4 To 
look in the region of consciousness for this Per- 
son, or for this His work, is fruitless and an 
effort fraught with endless confusion. Christian 
psychology thus traces to its deep-lying retreat 

1 Psa. li. 10. s John iii. 7. 3 John iii. 8. « 2 Cor. v. 17. 



118 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

the divine elaboration of the regenerated life. 
Here God works, in the depths of the soul, as 
silently and securely as if on the remotest world 
of the stellar universe. 

The forgiven, cleansed and regenerated being 
is brought into apparently new, though actually 

restored, relationship to the divine 
<4) Adoption. Being. Sin had alienated him 

from God. He had wandered far, 
a voluntary orphan, disowning and forfeiting 
all affiliation with the family of God. The 
crowning work of the Holy Spirit, in conver- 
sion, is the restoration of these broken family 
ties. The regenerated child is reinstated in the 
family of the Father's accepted children. This 
is essentially a divine act ; but it is the psychical 
person that is acted upon, that is the subject of 
this divine adoption. It is the psychical being 
about which are thrown the encircling arms of 
the Father's restoring embrace. It is this psy- 
chical being through which permeates the very 
atmosphere of the paternal tenderness. But 
while all this is true, the distinct act of adop- 
tion finds no place in consciousness. The soul 
hears no mystic voice announcing its adoption 
into the family of heaven. All of this active 
impress of paternal recognition is wrought be- 
low the threshold of consciousness. This re- 
sumed paternal attitude of the Holy Spirit 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 119 

must, however, create in the subconscious life a 
pervasive condition of filial harmony. The sin- 
tossed child rests at home once more on the 
Father's sheltering bosom. 

This potent work, which we have been observ- 
ing in the subconscious, instantly thrusts its 
effects up into the conscious area. 

State: Newness The J agt ^ J n ^ C OnSCiOUS COn- 

of Life. 

tinuity of states was the assertion 
of the fulfillment of promise. Now a clearly 
defined and wonderful conscious state takes 
shape. There springs from impenetrable depths 
a sense of newness of life. New vigour, new 
emotions, new conditions of great variety appear 
in consciousness. A life distinct, entirely apart 
from that immediately preceding, begins in the 
conscious soul. It rises full-fledged, with no 
discernible cause. Its genesis is a glad, over- 
whelming mystery. The reality of this new- 
ness of life is among the most substantial of 
psychological facts. As a state of consciousness 
it has distinct points of definition where it takes 
most perceptible shape. These points are found 
to correspond with the passing stages of the al- 
most simultaneous process which has been seen 
to take place in the subconscious region. 

We have seen that we are not, and cannot be, 
conscious of the act of forgiveness. It takes 
place in the divine Mind but results, in its re- 



120 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

lation to the soul forgiven, in the change of the 
divine attitude from disapproval to favour. 
D . 4 en _ . From this changed divine attitude 

Points of Denni- O 

tion: (i) loss of i n subconsciousness there is caused 

Condemnation. 

to occur in consciousness the loss 
of condemnation. The burden of heart, because 
of sin, strangely and completely disappears. It 
is as thoroughly eliminated from consciousness 
as if it had never existed. The unrest, the 
shame, the chagrin, the anguish all vanish from 
the soul as by magic. When the divine dis- 
favour is withdrawn in pardon and the Holy 
Spirit drops the attitude of disapproval in the 
region of the subconscious, then condemnation 
instantly disappears from consciousness. We 
only know of forgiveness by this conscious loss 
of condemnation. 

We have also seen that the act of cleansing 
takes place in the subconscious region. But 

when the pollution of sin's con- 
(a) Peace-joy. tact is thus cleansed away from 

the soul we discover that a glad 
emotion floods the region of consciousness, vary- 
ing from a calm peace to an ecstatic joy. It 
is the holy exhilaration of cleansed powers. 
It is the heavenly sense of spiritual cleanness. 
It is the psychical rebound after release from 
spiritual defilement. Its appearance in con- 
sciousness is the evidence of the gracious 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 121 

cleansing work which has taken place below 
consciousness. We only know of the cleansing 
by the peace and joy its purity begets. Of such 
emotions as these the following words are 
eminently true : " Consciousness only delivers 
up a part of their secrets ; it can never reveal 
them completely ; we must descend beneath it." * 
We have still further seen how the work of 
regeneration takes place utterly below the thresh- 
old of consciousness. But regen- 
condiTions 01 " 16 * 1 crated psychical structure gives 
rise in consciousness to completely 
transformed conditions. Conscious affection is 
radically modified. What was once loved is 
now hated. The appetencies are all remoulded. 
What was before bitterly spurned is now pas- 
sionately craved. Volitional impulses are given 
a new and exalted trend. God's will is now an 
unmingled delight, whereas before it was bur- 
densome and irksome. Passions, hitherto dis- 
torted and masterful, are subdued and under 
control. Ambitions and plans are now set in 
perfect accord with duty and God. These inner 
transformed conditions shed a transfiguring 
light upon all the world without. A new vision 
has come that sees the world's hitherto un- 
detected beauties and glories. The whole sphere 
of the conscious life has, by some unaccountable 

1 Rebofc, " The Psychology of the Emotions," Preface. 



122 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

process, passed under such an all-embracing 
transformation. It is evidently the conscious 
product of the regenerating presence of the 
Holy Spirit acting in the region of the subcon- 
scious. " What is attained is often an altogether 
new level of spiritual vitality, a relatively heroic 
level, on which impossible things have become 
possible and new energies and endurances are 
shown. The personality is changed, the man is 
born anew, whether or not his psychological 
idiosyncrasies are what give the peculiar shape 
to his metamorphosis." * The regeneration thus 
effected only becomes known by these trans- 
formed conditions thrust up into consciousness. 
We have, moreover, seen how, in the region 
of the subconscious, the regenerated heart is 

taken into the tender relations of 
( 4 ) Filial sense. adoption into the family of the 

heavenly Father. " I will receive 
you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye 
shall be My sons and daughters." 2 Consequent 
upon this fatherly recognition and adoption 
there springs up in consciousness, unbidden and 
unexpected, a filial sense more or less pro- 
nounced and vivid. " Because ye are sons, God 
hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your 
hearts, crying, Abba, Father." 3 " God has sent 

Barnes, "Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 241. 

3 2 Cor. vi. 17-18. 8 Gal. iv. 6. 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 123 

forth into our hearts the Spirit of adoption 
whereby the filial spirit is wrought in us and 
we are enabled to look up to God as our 
Father." 1 The love, the trust, the communion, 
the companionship, that make up a positive 
filial spirit pervade and possess the entire con- 
sciousness. Fear, recoil from the purity and 
greatness of the divine Presence, now strangely 
disappear. The glad, fearless spirit of loving 
childhood comes into the soul. There is be- 
gotten a clearly defined sense of being back 
again in the Father's family. Adoption into 
the divine family is thus known by the filial 
sense wrought in consciousness. 

In discriminating thought it is clear that the 

Holy Spirit appears in Christian experience only 

by what He does. He ever abides 

thVs^ilit ess ° f an( ^ ac ^ s * n tne re gi° n °f the sub- 
conscious. He speaks by His 

work ; He communicates by impression wrought 
in consciousness. He witnesses to the saved 
person of His salvation by the definite spiritual 
conditions He produces in consciousness. To 
that person those conditions are " the results of 
that which has transpired in him : the divine 
fact itself is, and remains for him, in an unat- 
tainable depth placed below his consciousness ; 
and as the natural birth, which has natural 

1 Bowne, "The Christian Life," p. 76. 



124 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

conscious life as its foundation, so the spiritual 
birth, the basis of his spiritual conscious life, 
remains hidden from him in darkness. He is 
conscious to himself of that which is effected, 
but only as the result of a spiritual work that 
has transpired in the region of his unconscious- 
ness." l " No outward being appears within the 
disciple's consciousness and literally testifies to a 
celestial fact concerning his standing in the 
court of heaven." 2 The removal of condemna- 
tion is the Spirit's witness to forgiveness. The 
coming of peace and joy into the troubled soul 
is His witness to the cleansing from sin. The 
transformation of affections, desires and tenden- 
cies in the entire conscious being is His witness 
to regeneration. The creation in the heart of a 
loving and confiding sense of harmonious child- 
hood to God is His witness to admission into the 
family of God's saved children. This wonderful 
cluster of definite spiritual changes, wrought in 
consciousness by the Holy Spirit, constitutes the 
Witness of the Spirit. " The Spirit Himself 
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the 
children of God." 3 The Holy Spirit utters no 
audible voice in the soul. There is no formulated 
language by which He communicates direct 
with the spirit of man. His vehicle of expres- 

1 Delitzsch, "System of Biblical Psychology," p. 402. 

8 Bowne, " The Christian Life," p. 75. 8 Rom. viii. 16. 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 125 

sion is the Word He has inspired and the 
psychical states He produces in harmony there- 
with. John, with great emphasis, declares 
that the knowledge of salvation rests upon the 
psychical states wrought in us. " We know that 
we have passed from death unto life because we 
love the brethren." * The witness of the Spirit 
is the love He generates in the soul. The cul- 
mination of this state of conscious salvation is 
the blending of all of these elements of newness 
of life into the indubitable Witness of the Spirit. 
Here we reach the end of another distinct 
division in the Cataclysmic States. The im- 
mediate object of the seeking heart 
consummation in ig per f ec ti y realized in this gra- 

Conversion. r j o 

cious work of conversion so posi- 
tively and completely accomplished in the con- 
scious soul. 

1 1 John iii. 14. 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES (Continued) 
(See Diagram III) 

Under the rude contacts of every-day life the 

new state of spiritual regeneration, studied in 

the preceding chapter, is subjected 

New.bo» soui to severe ordeals. In the storm 

Under Ordeal. 

and stress of these turbulent con- 
ditions, in the great majority of cases, a sub- 
sequent state more or less quickly develops in 
consciousness. The immediateness of its ap- 
pearance varies with the temperament of the 
individual. With the sanguine and impulsive 
its arrival is early ; with the phlegmatic and 
stolid its approach is slow. In nearly all cases, 
however, its coming is only a matter of time. 
The new-born soul is a babe in point of maturity. 
It is athrob with the freshness and enthusiasm 
of new life. It steps forth overconfidently, often 
recklessly, but to fall. For this reason it passes 
by a more or less speedy process into the state of 
vacillation. 

The state now reached is a fluctuating, check- 
ered and uncertain one. It is a state now aglow 

126 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 127 

with the glory of a present salvation, and now 
overcast with all the gloom of positive condem- 
nation. It is a turbulent, self-con- 
va'cuiktion tradictory, conglomerate state. It 

can best be understood through 
studying the steps by which it develops. Such 
steps are the stages by which it emerges from 
the brilliant preceding state of newness of life. 

The new-born soul is feeling its way along a 
course absolutely new to itself. Neither it nor 
steps in Develop- any one else has ever gone just this 
m ,T : ( J ) .J enorance way before. It faces a trackless 

of New Life. ■» 

area, and everything is strange. 
It is ignorant of the new conditions : ignorant 
alike of the nature of the evil that entices it and 
of the seducibility of its own weaknesses. It has 
come into a new world ; it has everything to 
learn. Like a babe, it must come to know its 
own limitations and needs ; it must find out how 
to relate itself to the world of evil inducements 
about it. It does not know how to keep what 
experience it has acquired, or to recognize and 
resist the foes of its purity and peace. Moreover, 
the emotional tides of the new life fluctuate with 
physical conditions and changing mental states. 
The new life finds itself, in the ebbing of the 
emotional tide, resting upon the cold, hard, un- 
feeling supports of naked truth and principle. 
In this unlooked-for subsidence of feeling the 



128 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

soul is liable to be an easy victim of invidious 
attack. In addition to all this, it must con- 
stantly be borne in mind how readily the deli- 
cate psychical balance of the regenerated life 
may be destroyed. The most trivial volitional 
action, it being sinful in essence, is ample to dis- 
turb the poise and transform the whole aspect 
of the spiritual life. 

Under these conditions of inexperience, evil 
meets the new life in countless guises. It often 
comes suddenly with no time for 
Yielding" 55 deliberation. It springs out at an 

unthought moment and takes the 
soul unawares. It comes, many times, at an in- 
opportune moment, when the new life is not at 
its strongest. That life is surprised and taken 
off its guard. It does not take in the gravity of 
the situation. The babe is tripped in its use of 
untrained muscles. There is not a distinct real- 
ization that it is stumbling. The action is im- 
pulsive and unstudied. The seriousness of the 
consequences is not comprehended, and the 
yielding is often almost imperceptible. Yet, 
notwithstanding all palliating conditions, the 
yielding is sin. Darkness again suffuses the soul ; 
condemnation spreads its gloom over conscious- 
ness. The offending child, quickly becoming 
aware of its fault and throwing itself at once 
upon the pardoning grace of the Father, dark- 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 129 

ness and condemnation vanish once more. 
Thus surprise and yielding appear as the source 
of vacillation in the new life. 

In rare instances, it would seem, this yielding 
does not occur and the possession of power ap- 
pears to have been coincident 
RaTiVs'talccs. with the newness of life. This is 
probably the possible case with 
every regenerated soul ; but in actual experience 
it is not the fact. Indeed, such instances are so 
exceedingly infrequent that their existence re- 
quires merely to be alluded to here. We are 
following in this study the almost universal 
movement of experience and in that movement 
surprise and yielding take important place be- 
ing almost universally present. 

Sin once getting a foothold in the regenerated 

heart, however slight and brief at first, causes 

to return the old tendencies that, 

(3) Rise of Old • , • 1 j 

Tendencies prior to regeneration, have domi- 

nated the psychical being. With 
an electric touch, like a shock, it revitalizes and 
reinstates the old and extinct habits, impulses, 
tastes and appetites, and we have a case of re- 
version to former conditions in increasing meas- 
ure as sin is repeated. Biological thought rec- 
ognizes this resuscitation of the old life *. " We 
shall have ample evidence in the sequel that it 
does still live in the background, and will make 



130 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

itself felt, if the new life weakens before it be- 
comes thoroughly established — before the nerv- 
ous reflexes which correspond to the new self- 
hood have become deeply ingrained and habitual. 
But as long as the new self-hood is maintained, 
as long as there is sufficient tension in the nerv- 
ous system to keep it intact, until it becomes weak 
and staggers, the old life does not exist as a sen- 
sible factor in consciousness." x One of the most 
marvellously regenerated men that ever lived 
declared : " I keep under my body, and bring 
it into subjection : lest that by any means, when 
I have preached to others, I myself should be a 
castaway." 2 Every repeated sin committed by 
the regenerated life restores into larger place the 
tendencies of the old life associated with that sin, 
and develops in the soul more and more pro- 
nounced state of vacillation. As thus the old 
life regains its ascendency sin becomes more 
masterful and of more frequent recurrence. The 
old tendencies become a formidable factor in the 
life increasingly to be reckoned with. 

The outcome of all this is that there now 
takes place in consciousness a persistent oscilla- 
tion between victory and defeat. Now, the 
new life is victorious ; and now, the old tend- 
encies conquer. At one point of time, the 

^tarbuck, "The Psychology of Religion," p. 134. 
*lCor. ix. 27. 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 131 

sunlight of the mountain top bathes all con- 
sciousness ; in the next hour, the gloom and 

damps of the valley darken and 
tween victory and chill. Up and down, back and 

forth through consciousness, this 
vacillation swings, like some fateful pendulum. 
But such psychical fluctuations, from the very 
nature of the psychical structure, cannot be per- 
petual. Resilience gradually and imperceptibly 
grows less. Vacillation is a passing state with 
widely divergent and alternative issues. 

We are at another pivotal stage in Chris- 
tian experience. The movement now swings 

positively in one of two ways. 

Another Pivotal f T T /» «n ,• j • i j j 

stage. Weary of vacillation, disheartened 

by repeated failure, vanquished by 
continuous defeats, the heart may swing com- 
pletely back into the old grooves of action. 
The rebound from sin then ceases ; the recoil 
from condemnation ends. The life then re- 
mains under the domination of sin ; in common 
terminology, it is " back-slidden." Christian 
experience, as such, is brought to a positive ter- 
mination, for the experience of the back-slidden 
heart is no longer Christian. 

This pivotal stage has another possible issue ; 
the movement may swing another way. Weary 
of the fluctuations between victory and defeat, 
convinced that there is attainable power to 



132 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

make victory continuous and not intermittent, 
there takes shape in the soul, moved by the im- 
pulsion of the Holy Spirit, a reso- 

foTuniformit ^ ute en ° or t f° r uniformity in saved 

experience. This is a state of en- 
deavour after an experience in which there is no 
backward step, no lost ground. The new effort 
emerges full and intense from the sickening 
vicissitudes in vacillation. On the part of the 
Christian life it is a desperate struggle for sur- 
vival ; unless it succeeds that life becomes a 
hollow form, a pitiful mockery. This struggle 
for uniformity consists of successive psychical 
acts. The content of this state becomes clearly 
discernible as we follow these several acts. 

The soul is heartily tired of the humiliating 
spectacle of weak vacillation between sin and re- 
A _ , pentance. Its grief is over the 

Acts Involved : * ° 

(i) confession of whole fluctuation and not over 

Unsteadiness. . . _ _ 

any one sin committed. Its revul- 
sion is from the crooked pathway of stumbling 
weakness. This effort for uniformity first takes 
shape in bitter confession of this shameful un- 
steadiness. It is the acknowledgment of radical 
fault that such culpable oscillation should be 
permitted to continue. It is the recognition of 
a fundamental dearth of power, leaving the life 
exposed to the successful attack of temptation. 
This sorrowful humiliation for repeated failure 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 133 

and defeat wrings from the soul penitent ac- 
knowledgment to God of sinful vacillation. 
" To Jesus as to Paul the sense of a divided 
will is the essence of the sense of sin." 1 In 
humble contrition forgiveness is sought for 
such unworthy service. It is a repentance 
as distinct and positive as that prior to regener- 
ation. 

A vision of higher service has dawned upon 
the soul. A conception of a steady walk in 
righteousness has possessed the life. 
Hihe e r d servi°ce. for There has been begotten a yearn- 
ing for such an experience. The 
price of such an acquisition is willingly paid. 
There takes shape in consciousness a deliberate 
dedication of the life to this higher service. A 
calm covenant for the faithful use of such grace 
is explicitly formulated. With specific fore- 
thought, knowing the points of failure that have 
developed since regeneration, identifying the 
points of weakness that have come to the surface 
in the period of vacillation, with new and 
mature intelligence the soul now pledges itself 
to perpetual alertness against sin in every form. 
It vows, in an all-embracing consecration, the 
unreserved submission of itself to the leading of 
God in its minutest detail and its most self- 
sacrificing requirements. It affirms an un- 

1 Peabody, u Jesus Christ and Christian Character," p. 108. 



134 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

swerving intentional loyalty to this higher uni- 
form service. 

The foregoing acts, confession of unsteadiness 
and dedication for higher service, but lead the 
way to the final culminating act 
by Faith. ° ° ' er in this effort for uniformity. That 
which can alone make such uni- 
formity possible is the enduement of adequate 
power. Having met the conditions upon which 
that power is assured in gospel promise, faith 
now claims it as a present and actual possession. 
The bold assertion of saving faith again appears. 
God's word is true ; the heart meets the condi- 
tions to the last known iota ; faith avers God's 
instant fulfilling action. This claim of faith is 
assertive, compelling, imperious. It is the holy 
assurance of unfaltering trust. It is the glad 
volitional actualization of the as yet unper- 
ceived gift of God. It is sheer naked faith 
asserting the baptism of power for uniform 
service. 

Close analysis of the states of consciousness 
makes plain that this definite act of faith is fol- 
lowed bv a total blank in the proc- 

Process again in J x 

subconscious ess of conscious continuity. This 

claim of power by faith is an ap- 
peal to a Source of power outside of self. As we 
have seen elsewhere such faith has no possibility 
of sequence by inherent energy. Its sole func- 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 135 

tion is to believe that the power is being given. 
How or where this gift occurs nothing in con- 
sciousness appears to show. There is silence, a 
vacuum, an unbridged chasm in the consecutive 
states in consciousness. The chain of conscious 
continuity again apparently snaps in two. The 
psychical continuity itself does not really break ; 
it merely sinks once more completely below the 
threshold of consciousness. The effort for 
uniformity evokes in the region of subconscious- 
ness a profound responsive activity of the Holy 
Spirit. By the glimmering light of revelation 
we dimly but positively trace once more this 
continuous movement transpiring in the abysses 
of the psychical structure. 

Penitence for and confession of unsteadiness 

in service find a yearning Father in glad wait- 

^ „ ing. The sorrowing cry of the 

Response to Faith : o o J 

(i) Forgiveness for storm-tossed child strikes an eager 

Vacillation. 

Ear ever open to such a call. In 
response to this effort, culminating in the act 
of assertive faith, God forgives for vacilla- 
tion. The record of repeated lapses, evincing a 
culpable unsteadiness even though interspersed 
with as repeated returns to repentant harmony 
with God, is all cancelled. The sin of oscilla- 
tion, which lies at the core of the vacillating life, 
is blotted out in the divine act of pardon. The 
shadow, arising from the Holy Spirit's attitude 



136 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

of reproach in the midst of the fluctuating life, 
is swept completely away. There is now again 
perfect harmony in the psychical depths. The 
release from constraint, arising from the restora- 
tion of approval of the Holy Spirit, must bring 
marked change and relief in psychical stress. 
This new harmony between child and Father is 
more mature, more complete, more intelligent 
than any hitherto known. 

The faith that claims the power for uniform 
service having put the psychical structure into 

attitude to receive that power, the 
(2) Gift of Power, waiting energies sought now flood 

the soul. All the depths of the 
psychical being are submerged by this in-filling 
of heavenly potency. It is the breaking out 'of 
unseen fountains ; it is the tapping of submerged 
rivers. It is the gift of power for service. This 
is the sanctification that sets apart to holy liv- 
ing. It is the bulwarking against sin in every 
form. It is putting at the very core and sources 
of the psychical life the power to stay clean. 
The outbreaking of this flood of divine energy 
never comes within consciousness. Of the real 
act of the Holy Spirit, in the bestowment of this 
gift of power, the receiving soul has no di- 
rect knowledge. It is the deep subconscious 
opening of a divine, artesian flow of spiritual 
energy. 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 137 

Whom God cleanses from vacillation and em- 
powers for holy living He possesses entire. Into 
such a prepared being He crowds 
( 3 ) Fullness of God. Himself to the profoundest spirit- 
ual depths. There is no direct con- 
sciousness of this gracious flooding of the divine 
Presence. He hides His infinite fullness in the 
unmeasured subconscious area of the psychical 
being. Though the soul be full of God it has no 
consciousness of Him as a personal Being. He 
thus eludes our direct knowledge because con- 
sciousness has no power to immediately perceive 
Him. The very climax of the act of salvation 
is this filling " with all the fullness of God." * 
He permeates like an incense ; He penetrates 
like an atmosphere ; He saturates and engulfs 
like a submerging sea. Such is the indwelling 
fullness of God, the subconscious aspect of the 
Spirit-filled life. 

All this work in response to faith is wrought 

in the area of subconsciousness and alone seen 

under the dim illumination of in- 

of ta powrr° sse8Sion s pi re d revelation. By figures and 
similes and with much meagreness 
of detail it is delineated. The last state in con- 
sciousness was the claim of power by faith. We 
have crossed the chasm that separates us from 
that state by passing down into the region be- 

1 Eph. iii. 19. 



138 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

low consciousness and through the underlying 
conditions just outlined. Now, as we follow the 
path of this movement, we find ourselves rising 
again into consciousness and in the possession of 
the power which faith then claimed. Conscious- 
ness knows nothing of how that power came ; it 
only knows that the power is here. A clear in- 
dubitable state of conscious potency is strangely 
present ; it has sprung into the soul as from the 
unseen. A sense of waiting energy, a realiza- 
tion of measureless reserve, a feeling of contact 
with limitless force, these make up a state of 
consciousness of the actual possession of power. 
This state defines itself most distinctly about cer- 
tain luminous points in consciousness. It will 
help us to get a clear view of it if we dwell 
specifically upon these points of definition. 

The shame of vacillation is gone. The chagrin 

of fluctuating weakness has vanished. An 

exultant joy has supplanted it. 

^Exutt^y. 00 : Tnis distinct displacement has no 
conscious origin ; yet the depres- 
sion has disappeared as thoroughly as if it had 
never existed. The soul is filled with an ex- 
hilarating buoyancy. A weight has been thrown 
off; a gloom has been dissipated ; a pervading 
joy fills all consciousness. This rises often into 
a triumphant ecstasy. It is the profound 
emotional rebound from the stifling depression 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 139 

of vacillation. It is the joyous psychical re- 
action upon divine forgiveness and approval 
after the condemnation and humiliation of un- 
steadiness. This powerful genesis of joyous 
emotion has acted in the subconscious. The 
pardoning embrace of the Holy Spirit has 
awakened an ecstasy of spiritual emanci- 
pation. It is the blissful thrill of divine liber- 
ation. 

The surprise of temptation has now lost its 

strategy. It no longer takes by the suddenness 

of its attack. It may startle but it 

(a) Uniformity of doeg t catch off guar( ^ The life 

Resistance. ° 

is now alert and firmly set. It is 
entrenched with a new energy. Where before 
it yielded it now resists. It maintains a steady 
front against sin, and there is a consequent uni- 
formity of resistance. A strange, strengthening 
power has in some way come into the life. It 
does not overwhelm the mental processes ; nor 
does it overmaster the will. It only makes 
steady and strong for the right. This new 
ability to resist gives consciousness of the new 
gift of power. This increased uniformity of 
resistance makes conscious of a greater establish- 
ment in righteousness. This steady rejection of 
sin makes clear the work of sanctification, the 
setting apart by divine power to a uniform 
course of holy living. 



140 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

The inevitable psychical correlate to such 
uniform resistance of wrong is an abiding 
spiritual peace. Emotional tides 
An Abiding Peace, may come and go with all their 
changeful variance ; but abiding 
peace survives unmodified. This is the conscious 
calm of spiritual harmony with God. The power 
that enables to uniformly resist the wrong as- 
sures, so long as it continues, the presence in the 
conscious life of a steady quiet, a deep calm of 
being, a heavenly peace that the stormy disturb- 
ances of the external world can never ruffle. Of 
such peace Christ said, " My peace I give unto 
you." * This is the peace that is affirmed by in- 
spiration to flow in its steadiness and fullness 
" as a river." 2 

The energy of God, co-extensive and commen- 
surate with the divine fullness, which we have 
seen saturating the soul, now 
for work°° clamours for use. Under the pres- 

sure of this divine possession 
Christ propulsively exclaimed, " My Father 
worketh hitherto, and I work." 3 Divine energy 
is never idle ; if it is retained it is applied. 
Possession of divine power charges a soul to the 
full with holy impetus. Consciousness quivers 
with new impulsive energy which seizes upon 
every faculty of the soul and electrifies it with a 

1 John xiv. 27. 8 Isa. xlviii. 18. s John v. 17. 



THE CATACLYSMIC STATES 141 

restless vigour. The entire being is charged 
with an hitherto unknown force. Love is made 
intense and tender. Thought is made clear and 
bold. Volition is made prompt and tireless. 
Perception is keen ; imagination is vivid ; 
memory is quick. The whole psychical being 
is thus consciously possessed from without itself 
and put at its best. The indwelling fullness of 
God gives a possession of power that projects 
into consciousness a holy unction for service. 
It is God crowding the psychical powers into 
action. A new zeal is awakened ; a new 
enthusiasm is kindled. The indwelling fullness 
of God is manifested in consciousness by this 
consuming unction for service. 

Such are the cataclysmic states of Christian 
experience. They are the more or less con- 
vulsive processes by which sin, 

cataclysmic states once having become fixed in con- 
not Normal. O 

sciousness, can alone be eradicated. 
The soul, conscious of sin's presence and effects, 
finds relief in no other way. These states, it 
must be borne in mind, are not the normal 
states of the rightly developed spiritual life ; 
they are, in fact, the states that are necessitated 
by the abnormal introduction of sin into con- 
sciousness. As a consequence of its confirmed 
presence there these strenuous, drastic psychic 
conditions must follow if sin is ever eliminated 



142 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

and its devastation and dominion brought to an 
end. These states have been given precedence 
in treatment, not because they merit priority of 
attention in the normal order of the religious 
life, but because, arising from prevailing erro- 
neous views and education, sin is given almost 
universal place in consciousness, and therefore the 
cataclysmic states constitute the as universal type 
of positive Christian experience. This is true by 
reason of a very deplorable fact : " It is the very 
character and mark of all unchristian education 
that it brings up the child for future con version.' ' x 
When the spiritual life is given its proper in- 
structional environment by Christian nurture, 
Normal state Christian experience appears in its 

under christian normal development, in which 
cataclysmic states find small place 
because therein sin never becomes a confirmed 
factor. So the genuinely normal type of Chris- 
tian experience is not cataclysmic; the usual 
type of that experience, however, is cataclysmic. 
Precedence of consideration has been given to the 
cataclysmic states because of their overshadow- 
ing prevalence and the opportunity this order of 
treatment gives for showing by contrast how the 
normal Christian experience, developed under 
Christian nurture, escapes almost entirely the 
convulsive processes of the cataclysmic states. 

1 Bushnell, " Christian Nurture," p. 17. 



VI 

THE STATES UNDER CHRISTIAN NURTURE 

(See Diagram IV) 

Christian nurture has much to do in deter- 
mining the psychic pathway described in Chris- 
tian experience. Its effects upon 
Earner Aspects of p SVC hic states for the entire subse- 

Chnstian Nurture, a «/ 

quent life is prodigious beyond all 
computation. The content of that nurture, in- 
cluding both its nature and results, merits the 
most painstaking and exact study. It deals 
with the psychic life when it is most plastic. 
Illumination from the depths is then easily in- 
tensified. Impulse from the subconscious is 
readily directed and encouraged. The almost 
intuitive perception of Scripture truth is aided 
and rendered clearer. The relish for spiritual 
things is deepened. The ready assent to the 
divine source of the Gospel is strengthened. 
The right of gospel authority to obedience is 
profoundly impressed. The atmosphere of faith 
and love and obedience is breathed in by the 
young life long before distinct religious activity 
is apparent. It prays with its first lisps. Its 
own first memories are blended with those of 

143 



144 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

that other Babe once lying in the manger at 
Bethlehem. In after years it cannot tell which 
it learned to love first, mother or Jesus. It 
would as soon grieve mother as the Saviour, so 
real does the latter Personality come to be. 
Heaven is all about it. Divine care shuts it in 
like mother's arms. These subconscious im- 
pressions of the genuinely Christian home-life 
upon the psychic life of the child are profound 
and intricate beyond comprehension. The ap- 
parently oblivious psychic being absorbs them 
like a sponge. They come to the surface in after 
days in dominant impulse. They determine 
taste and volition and destiny in a very large 
degree. Such are the earlier aspects of Christian 
nurture. 

The soul of man is born the child of God. It 
belongs to the kingdom of God : " Of such is the 

kingdom of God." 1 It is a mem- 
££?£L* ber of the divine family. God is 

in closest, holiest touch with its 
psychic depths. As we have seen in our study 
of the antecedent states, the Holy Spirit illumi- 
nates it and stirs in it the initiative impulses 
towards the spiritual life. One has well said of 
such a child : " He is to open on the world as 
one that is spiritually renewed, not remember- 
ing the time when he went through a technical 

1 Matt. xix. 14. 



STATES UNDER CHRISTIAN NURTURE 145 

experience, but seeming rather to have loved 
what is good from his earliest years." * " Of the 
Moravian Brethren not one in ten recollects any 
time when he began to be religious. " 2 If ever 
the new soul becomes anything else than the 
accepted child of God it must be by its own 
choosing. Such blessed childhood is its first, 
and it may be its everlasting, estate. 

There comes, however, an instant when the 
first responsible choice is made. Shall there be 
in the psychic life obedience to 
under christian God and the following of His Gos- 
pel, or shall there be resistance to 
Him and rejection of His authority ? Shall the 
soul remain the accepted child of God, or shall 
it be alienated from Him and enter upon the life 
of sin ? This instant of choice may be very 
vague and difficult of exact identification, but it 
comes soon or late at some definite point in the 
progress of psychical life. When that instant 
does arrive Christian nurture, wherever it has 
been present, enters as an overtopping factor in 
the situation. In multitudes of cases it holds the 
young soul true to the impulses of the Spirit and 
to the precepts of the Gospel. In all such in- 
stances the deliberate choice is to continue in the 
service of God, to remain His obedient child, to 
abide in His heavenly family. 

1 Bushnell, " Christian Nurture," p. 10. 'Ibid., p. 26. 



146 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

On this volition of the child-heart the path of 

the psychic movement enters at once upon 

far-advanced states of Christian 

Sin-induced States • m l i . i 

Absent. experience. Two states, as they 

appear in the antecedent states 
heretofore studied, are here utterly wanting ; 
there are no such states as refusal to obey and 
sense of sin. The two opening states of the 
cataclysmic series are here also absent ; there are 
in this experience no such states as conviction 
for sin and repentance. (Compare Diagrams III 
and IV.) These four states find no place in the 
non-sinful child-heart. The occasion for them 
has never arisen, and hence the movement of 
Christian experience under Christian nurture 
has no knowledge of them. Condemnation, as 
a settled condition, can never appear in con- 
sciousness where sin, as an habitual act, has 
never ^occurred. The agonies of pungent con- 
viction are rendered impossible by the absence 
of sin committed and cherished. Repentance is 
entirely foreign to an experience in which no 
need of it is present. All states of Christian ex- 
perience, occasioned by the presence of sin and 
appearing in action only that sin may be re- 
moved, are utterly without trace of presence in 
the experience of the obedient heart under Chris- 
tian nurture. The two states, predisposition and 
assent to the Gospel, treated in Chapter II, the 



STATES UNDER CHRISTIAN NURTURE 147 

only ones among the antecedent series having 
any place in the type of experience here under 

consideration, need no further am- 
IS^SHSSl pUfication. The treatment there 

given exactly applies to their 
present setting in the series of states now before 
us. We shall also silently drop out from this 
series those states already noted as not appearing 
here at all. 

The movement of the Christian experience of 
the child under Christian nurture passes at once 

from the antecedent state of assent 

State : 

covenant for to the Gospel to the advanced state 

of covenant for service. In this 
state the child-soul simply, with deliberate voli- 
tion, elects to continue in the same harmonious 
relationship with God into which it was born. 
It now distinctly and of its own free act cove- 
nants with God to serve Him. In so far as the 
child-mind comprehends the meaning of the 
act it is as intelligent as that of the adult. In 
its incipient sense of self-possession it dedicates 
that self to the service of God. All that enters 
into its being, vague and crude as 

t D o e c: c „dm n on A s dap,ed may be its conception of these 
things, it positively puts at God's 
service. All that belongs to it, limited and 
comparatively trifling as that may be, it in- 
cludes in this committal to the service of God. 



148 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

This covenant is as clear as crystal. The com- 
mittal of the child-life to such service is whole- 
hearted and sincere to the last degree. It has 
no attachments to sinful things to break ; it has 
no longing for old indulgences to battle with. 
All its Spirit-stirred impulses and all the in- 
fluences of the nurturing Christian environment 
conspire to make this covenant complete. No 
instant in all the career of the soul is so favour- 
able for a perfect covenant as this. 

The trust of the surrendered child is without 
flaw. The innocent and implicit confidence of 

the child-heart is touching in the 
Acceptance by extreme. The certainty of divine 

fulfillment of promise, instruction 
in which constitutes so vital an element in true 
Christian nurture, has been incorporated into 
the very psychical structure of the child. It 
does not know how to doubt ; it has yet to have 
its first lesson in skepticism. It takes the 
promise to itself with unfaltering assurance. It 
springs at once to the certainty that God 
keeps His word and, therefore, its covenant is 
accepted. The struggle of adult years is un- 
known. With utmost positiveness and prompt- 
itude the child-soul takes by a perfect faith the 
certain fulfillment of the divine word. Not a 
semblance to distrust shadows the child-con- 
sciousness. 



STATES UNDER CHRISTIAN NURTURE 149 

Even this perfect faith of childhood has no 

power in itself to project other states into the 

experience that follows. Indeed, 

L e bcon n s S c e ilus he these states that now occur are not 
new ; in incipient form they are 
constituent parts of the childhood to God in 
which every new-born human spirit finds itself. 
They are now only made clearer and more 
definite in content. By some process of which 
the soul is not conscious, in the depths of a 
chasm unbridged in conscious continuity, this 
work of greater clearness and definiteness is 
wrought. The action of the Holy Spirit in re- 
sponse to distinct covenant and faith is to make 
more positive what has been before as clear as it 
could be in the rudimentary psychic conditions. 
Marked differentiations from the corresponding 
cataclysmic state are to be carefully noted. No 
sin having been committed, there is no forgive- 
ness, no cleansing. There having been no dis- 
tortion of the spiritual nature by reason of in- 
dulgence in sin, there is no regeneration. The 
soul having never separated itself from the 
heavenly Father and His family by disobedi- 
ence, there is no adoption. All that is wrought 
now in the subconscious by the Holy Spirit is 
consistent with what remains after the complete 
elimination from the situation of all those con- 
ditions which only occur as consequent upon 



150 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

habitual sin. What does take place is not con- 
version. The child, fully responsive under 
Christian nurture, needs no conversion and 
never has any. It would be turning the whole 
psychological situation into confusion and con- 
tradictory chaos to force such a change into 
these states. 

While, as we have seen, there is no act of 
forgiveness in answer to this volitional accept- 
phases of that Re- ance of childhood to God, there 
A P ttit S u e d : e ( ofAp. ser must be a glad intensification of 
prova1, the divine approval. The attitude 

of the Holy Spirit in the subconscious can but 
be one of such deepened approval. For, while 
God holds Himself in loving approving relation 
to the un volitional innocence of the child-heart, 
yet when that heart distinctly chooses to remain 
in that relation of an accepted child, the Holy 
Spirit must come into closer and more demon- 
strative attitude of approval than was before 
possible. Now the life is, of its own free elec- 
tion, the covenanted servant of God and as a 
consequence the divine sanction is more pro- 
nounced than ever. 

Moreover, while in this acceptance by faith 
of the life with God there is no regeneration 
proper, the fellowship between the child-soul 
and the Holy Spirit becomes more intensely in- 
timate. The fresh untried powers, the crude 



STATES UNDER CHRISTIAN NURTURE 151 

unfledged faculties, the hasty untamed impulses, 
by close contacts of the Holy Spirit in com- 
munion, are steadied and adjusted 

(2) Completer Ad- . . ° 

justment in Feiiow- by that Spirit into a holy accord 
with Himself. His presence in 
such intimate relationship can but be a mighty 
conforming power. The entire subconscious 
structure and states are fitted to His divine Per- 
son. This is not regeneration ; it is psychical 
adjustment to the informing Presence. " The 
ideal form of the Christian life is that which 
never experienced conversion and which cannot 
date its beginning." 1 

It being true that a soul, born a child of God 
and never having forfeited that childhood by 
sin, cannot in any proper sense be 
rental Acknowi- adopted into the family of God 
edgment. since it is already in that family, 

yet the hearty volitional avowal of, and the ac- 
ceptance by faith of the divine assurance of, that 
childhood must bring a more distinct and posi- 
tive touch of parental tenderness to the psy- 
chical contact with the Holy Spirit in the sub- 
conscious. The soul is now the child of God, not 
merely because He made it such but also be- 
cause it deliberately chooses to be such. The 
accepting embrace of the Holy Spirit has in it 
an enlarged acknowledgment and intensity of 

^owne, "The Christian Life," p. 114. 



152 STATES OF CHEISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

parental relationship. The Father, with a new 
pressure of spiritual union, now clasps to Him- 
self His voluntary and avowed child. 

From all this there springs out of the depths 
of the subconscious into consciousness a more 

clearly formulated sense of right- 
State: Rightness nesg of heart rp^ fc t th 

oi rieart. 

newness of life arising in the 
cataclysmic states ; it is the more fully developed 
stage of the sense of rightness of heart which is 
the soul's inherent birthright. It is more fully 
defined than before ; it is completer in detail. 
Before it was a vague and largely unintelligible 
condition ; now it has been given positive out- 
line and form in consciousness, is more intelli- 
gent, more perfectly understood. It stands out 
in consciousness as a separate state. Prior to 
this the heart was right without 2a\y distinct 
consciousness of being so; now that sense has 
risen into a definite realization. Where this 
new clearness of sense has come from does not 
appear. It has come in answer to the avowal of 
covenant and the exercise of faith. It has 
arisen, like the dawn, with no shock or con- 
vulsion or seeming suddenness. Just when it 
came may not be known, in most instances 
probably is not known. It is so like what had 
always been that its new coming was scarcely 
realized until it was fully here. This sense of 



STATES UNDER CHRISTIAN NURTURE 153 

Tightness of heart defines itself by certain con- 
scious facts that appear in it. Brief examina- 
tion of these facts in detail gives a view of this 
state both exact and comprehensive. 

The mother's smile irradiates the entire home. 
It subtly tosses the cheer of its sunshine into 
every nook and corner. So the 
u) fi place Point8: approving attitude of the Holy 
Spirit, in response to the volitional 
committal of the young heart to the divine 
service, sends a sweet sense of peace throughout 
the entire psychical structure. It steals over 
consciousness like the penetration of heavenly 
perfume from hidden bloom. It is a profound 
calm, a pervading quiet, like the holy hush that 
attends a tender lullaby. It rises from the 
impenetrable depths of the subconscious, the 
soothing conscious reaction from the tender 
smile of approval with which the Holy Spirit 
beams through the depths of the psychical being. 
It is the peace of God because the soul is His. 
It comes to the child-heart at the period of the 
first volitional choice of obedience as clearly as 
to the adult heart of any years. The ability of 
the Spirit of God to communicate peace to the 
spirit of man is not limited by any immaturity 
of development. Such peace is one of the points 
at which rightness of heart comes to distinctness 
of outline in consciousness. 



154: STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

Young life, however innocent, is ever full of 
tangential impulses, volcanic spurts and con- 
genital idiosyncrasies, until by the 
(2) Hoiy conditions, discipline of associations and ex- 
perience it gets its normal pace 
and settles into harmonious adjustments. As 
we have seen, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, 
in the region of the subconscious, works for the 
child-heart this needed adjustment. Without 
knowing how the young life finds itself loving 
the good and the pure, delighting in holy as- 
sociations, loathing the impure and shrinking 
from disobedience. These harmonious condi- 
tions in consciousness have every appearance of 
being its natal state so naturally and gently 
have they come. So perfectly has the Holy 
Spirit, by His intimate presence and fellowship 
in subconsciousness, subdued, moulded and ad- 
justed that the young heart receives these holy 
conditions of consciousness as its simple birth- 
right. This positive sense of holy conditions is 
another distinct point where Tightness of heart 
takes shape in child-consciousness. 

There is an instant somewhere when the 
child-soul first catches the sweet sense of phys- 
ical childhood. The tenderness of parental care, 
the softness and continuousness of parental ca- 
ress, somehow crowd into consciousness such a 
sense of childhood. So the Holy Spirit, in the 



STATES UNDER CHRISTIAN NURTURE 155 

depths of the subconscious, caresses, embraces, 
evinces by the thousandfold ministries, of which 
only an infinite Fatherhood is 
( 3 ) Final sense. capable, such demonstrative ac- 
knowledgment of the young soul's 
heavenly childhood that there rises into con- 
sciousness the unquestioning sense of being the 
accepted child of God. It trusts in Him, con- 
fides in Him, shelters itself in Him, feels the 
certainty of His perpetual protection and care, 
sings from very joy of His fatherly Presence. 
Here again rightness of heart takes distinctness 
of outline in this filial sense with which con- 
sciousness is thus pervaded. 

These facts existing in consciousness, how- 
ever imperceptible their rise may have been, are 
the evidence of the subconscious 

Witness of the ^^ q{ ^ jfojy g^ r^ 

date or the speed of their appear- 
ance have nothing to do with their reality or 
evidential value. They are here in conscious- 
ness in all their distinct and unquestionable 
reality, and being here they are the indubitable 
testimony of the Holy Spirit to the fact that the 
soul in which they exist is the accepted child of 
God. This is the voice of certified phenomena. 
This is the divine seal imprinted upon the very 
structure of the psychical being. This is the 
witness of the Spirit. Thus the states of Chris- 



156 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

tian experience under Christian nurture come 
to the same witness of the Spirit to acceptance 
with God as found in the cataclysmic states, 
only it is reached by a very different pathway. 
The definiteness and reliability of the witness 
are, however, as satisfactory in the one case as 
in the other. 

The child under Christian nurture, brought 
to conscious Tightness of heart and the witness 
of the Spirit, occupies in its atti- 
state : vacillation, tude towards the external world 
a position identical with that in 
which we found the adult soul, brought by the 
cataclysmic states to newness of life and the 
witness of the Spirit to its salvation from sin. 
The inexperienced child-soul faces a new and 
untried region of activity. Under these condi- 
tions the prevailing experience, with more or 
less immediateness, next enters upon a state of 
vacillation. Ignorance of the new pathway, as 
we discovered in the cataclysmic states, throws 
the untried child of God open to surprise and 
yielding. Temptation springs up unawares and 
in unguarded moments sin is committed. Sin de- 
velops a repetitive energy. There 

TendenJe^ 111 * s no r i se °f °^ tendencies, for sin 

has never had any place in the 

life. There are no old habitual indulgences 

for the sinful lapse to reinstate ; but there are 



STATES UNDER CHRISTIAN NURTURE 157 

new indulgences for it to fasten upon the life. 
Every repetition of the sinful act increases its 
energy. Repentance and forgiveness alternate 
with the yielding and the life vacillates between 
victory and defeat. We have studied these 
phenomena that now open before us as they ap- 
peared in the cataclysmic states and a repetition 
of that discussion is uncalled for here. From 
this point on, the cataclysmic 

Subsequent States _ _^_ . 

as in cataclysmic states and the states under Chris- 
Senes * tian nurture move along an identi- 

cal pathway which has already been described 
in full and for the consideration of which the 
reader is referred to the discussion of the cata- 
clysmic states from the state of vacillation to 
the end of the series. 

It should, however, be borne in mind that the 

psychic life under Christian nurture is far less 

liable to the violent fluctuations 

Advantage m chns- j n vac iH a ti n than the psychic 

tian Nurture. ± ■/ 

life that has passed through the 
convulsive processes of the cataclysmic states. 
This is true for two reasons : first, the constant 
safeguards of that nurture continue to buttress 
it against extensive yielding to sin until forti- 
fied by divine power in response to intelligent 
faith ; and second, if it yields, in so doing it 
does not in any measure restore an old weak- 
ness with which it must grapple anew in the 



158 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

struggle, it has no former foes to fight. The 
life under Christian nurture, therefore, enters 
this vacillating stage of experience under no 
handicap and at an immense advantage in com- 
parison with his cataclysmic fellow Christian. 



VII 

THE STATES IN ASCENT 

(See Diagram V) 

The discriminating study of Christian experi- 
ence clearly reveals two directions of movement 
in the succession of its states. One 

Two Psychical 

Movements: of these movements may be tech- 

(i) Horizontal. • n l , • i 

nically characterized as progress, 
and the other as ascent. The former covers that 
advancing horizontal movement occurring in 
the process by which the soul is brought into 
saved relationship to God, empowered to remain 
in that state and thus prepared to enter actively 
upon the efficient service of God. There is a 
distinct advance of states in this progress. Each 
state succeeds its predecessor as one made possi- 
ble by what has gone before and necessary to 
the completed process of saving experience. It 
is an integral part of the fundamental condition 
constituting the saved life, in which the proc- 
esses of immediate salvation have been com- 
pleted. Figuratively speaking, this movement 
is on a level ; it is characterized by succession, 
but not by ascent, in states. Hence the hori- 
zontal direction given it in diagram. 

159 



160 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

But when the movement of saving progress is 
completed, then another direction of movement 

begins. The fundamental states 
(a) Ascending. of present salvation having been 

finished the states of growth com- 
mence. In this movement of states, to succes- 
sion is added ascent ; this being true because 
these are states whose movement is constantly 
into intensification, expansion, elevation. " The 
path of the just is as the shining light that shin- 
eth more and more unto the perfect day." * 
" First the blade, then the ear, after that the 
full corn in the ear." 2 Hence the ascending 
direction given this movement in diagram. It 
is now our task to take up this saved life and 
follow it through these states in ascent. 

In this division of our inquiry, definition, 
uniformity and consecutiveness of states become 

less exact. The movement is more 

Intricacy of this n •, ,-t 

Movement. oi a composite one than any we 

have been heretofore considering. 
States, distinct in themselves so far as their con- 
stituent elements are concerned, blend and 
mingle, overlapping and interlacing in such 
intricacy of action that the task of separation 
and individual examination is an exceedingly 
difficult one. Different states of growth are 
perpetually operative, simultaneously in action 

^rov. iv. 18. 3 Mark iv. 28. 




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THE STATES IN ASCENT 161 

on parallel lines and even on identical areas of 
experience, as far as the course of this movement 
in ascent has been successfully exploited. No 
description or diagram can be true to all of the 
facts in all cases in any exhaustive way. The 
best one can hope to do is to lift these states in 
ascent out of the complexity of their activity 
and place them, one by one, as in a sketch of still 
life, in what seems to be their most natural con- 
secutive order, as they would appear if once they 
could be made to cease their complexity of inter- 
action and assume their actual prevailing posi- 
tion in succession, their simple causal order in 
relation to each other. Only thus are we able 
to acquire any exact knowledge of the states in 
ascent, the intricate confusion of whose processes 
is exceedingly baffling. 

We are brought up to this movement in as- 
cent, which we are now to examine, in the final 
state of possession of power, as 
Divineunction amplified in the closing paragraphs 
of Chapter V and shown in the 
last section of Diagram III. To this same final 
state the states under Christian nurture have 
also been seen to lead, as elaborated in Chapter 
VI and charted in Diagram IV. All states of 
saving Christian experience, whether by way of 
cataclysm or nurture, converge invariably to 
possession of power whose culminating feature 



162 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

in consciousness is a definite unction for service. 
Filling to the utmost the subconscious area of 
the psychical being, in response to the dedica- 
tion of all of the powers for an abiding salvation 
and a claim by faith of the farthest reach of the 
promise, the divine Presence thrills every con- 
scious faculty with this restless and burning 
unction for service. Out of this divine impul- 
sion an immediate and remarkable service is- 
sues ; here commences the movement in ascent. 
The states in this movement take more or less 
definite shape in consciousness. Our task is to 
decipher and define, as best we may be able, 
these psychical states as they appear to occur in 
this movement. 

As the direct outcome of such exercise of the 

psychical powers as this service involves there 

appears in consciousness a new 

State: Revelations area Q f knowledge. The first 
in Service. ° 

definite state of Christian growth 
consists of a cluster of distinct revelations in 
service. They constitute a distinct rise in ex- 
perimental intelligence. They form the first 
step in the ascent of growth. They are charac- 
terized by a larger sweep of vision, a wider 
range of horizon, a clearer zone of atmosphere, 
all of which are phenomena of increased alti- 
tude. This state is defined in consciousness by 
certain luminous points where these revelations 



THE STATES IN ASCENT 163 

gradually take shape under repeated experiences 
wrought out in the vicissitudes of Christian 
service. By the cumulative demonstrations of 
such service are these distinct accretions of 
knowledge made possible. To fully define this 
state we shall enumerate and dwell briefly upon 
such specific revelations as seem to compose it. 

Amid the strenuous activities of service there 
is formulated a vivid perception of the exact- 
ness of the promises of God's word. 

These Revelations . A . , 

specified: d) Ex- It rises as a growing and luminous 

actness of Promise. i ■ • • o 

revelation in consciousness, serv- 
ice, by its testing of the promises, its reliance 
upon them in emergency, its sheer and sole de- 
pendence upon them when all else fails, proves 
over and over again their unvarying accuracy. 
The obedient children of God everywhere unite 
in testifying to the fact that the Scriptural 
promises of God are uniformly exact to their 
conditions. There is a growth in this positive 
knowledge ; it becomes ever clearer under the 
multiplied activities of service. The never-dis- 
appointing reliability of the divine promise, 
when properly understood, becomes an increas- 
ingly confirmed fact in consciousness. The defi- 
niteness of divine assurance, the delicate balance 
of divine adjustment in the statement of promise, 
the rigorous exaction of condition to fulfillment, 
all of these are demonstrated time after time, to 



164: STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

an ever-deepening measure of certaint}', under 
the stress and strain of genuine service. The 
exactness of promise thus becomes a definite 
and growing revelation in consciousness under 
the processes of experimental service. 

Coincident with the demonstration of the ex- 
actness of the promise there is revealed an over- 
whelming abundance in divine 
( 9) Abundance in reS ponse. The outbreak of fulfill- 

Response. r 

ment comes as a perpetual sur- 
prise to the believing recipient. Promise is 
proven to be a mere intimation as the great 
deeps of divine resources pour out a measureless 
fullness. No anticipation can match the actual- 
ization. The revelations of the inconceivable 
plenitude of response to reliance upon divine 
assurance inspire an unceasing wonder. " Eye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered 
into the heart of man, the things which God 
hath prepared for them that love Him." 1 In- 
describable tides of heavenly grace break over 
the believing soul in service. The hidings of 
divine power are discovered by the saved heart 
at work. Malachi's assurance that " There shall 
not be room enough to receive " 2 the deluge of 
heavenly response is found to be literally true. 
The actual abundance of divine power, waiting 
at the threshold of the word, is a bewildering 

1 1 Cor. ii. 9. 2 Mai, iii. 10. 



THE STATES IN ASCENT 165 

and ever-increasing revelation to the soul ear- 
nestly in action for God. Service is found to un- 
lock what proves to be the flood-gates of divine 
responsiveness. 

The shifting situations of daily service are, 
moreover, ever uncovering unsuspected depths in 

the word of God. Meanings never 
the wofd 8 ° f perceived before are constantly 

opening upon the vision. The de- 
mands of service, the kaleidoscopic changes in 
perspective, the new and imperative uses of the 
truth, the necessitated penetration to the pro- 
foundest limit of the promise, all these unveil to 
the astounded gaze of the truly serving heart a 
display of the ever-receding depths of the divine 
word, deep beneath deep, until it seems utterly 
unfathomable. Its meaning is found to be inex- 
haustible ; its light for new conditions is ever 
fresh ; its lure to larger life ever swings far 
ahead ; its silent untrod avenues ever await the 
coming of the advancing footfall. Service 
pushes the search-light on but to illumine new 
regions of truth lying ever beyond in the 
wonderful word of God. Amazing intimations 
are constantly arising that the half has never 
been told of undiscovered depth and content in 
that word. 

In this whole-hearted engagement in the 
work of God, the possibilities of faithfulness 



166 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

are lifted into an inspiration. They are re- 
peatedly set in such light as shows them to 

be practically limitless. Steady 
etfF^ih&i^s 68 scrupulous faithfulness, plodding 

on in its undeviating uniformity to 
conviction, is perpetually springing surprises in 
attainment and achievement. Minuteness and 
constancy in detail, loyalty in all degrees and at 
all costs, adhesion to the most trivial feature of 
the divine commission in service, these ever pile 
up a mass of evidence illustrative of the un- 
suspected possibilities of simple faithfulness. 
Not in the magnitude of deeds, not in the heroic 
struggle of strenuous instants, not in the bril- 
liance of faculties engaged, not in the spectacular 
splendour of action, are discovered the richest 
results of service. In that service that never 
seeks respite, that never forgets itself in omis- 
sion, that never is caught off its guard, that 
never lets up an iota in its fidelity, in such 
service is found astounding prodigality of re- 
sults in God's own time. Such assuring dis- 
coveries of the possibilities of faithfulness must 
be given large place among these revelations of 
service. 

Service brings such revelations to conscious- 
ness and they become a part of the psychical 
life. They are new and potential contributions 
to the conscious spiritual possessions. They com- 



THE STATES IN ASCENT 167 

pel the soul to a higher, clearer point of view. 

They are not limited to this one initial state in 

our tabulation. They are incessant 

such Revelations * n ^ ie j r occurrence ; as long as 

Continuous. 7 O 

service lasts its revelations ac- 
cumulate. It is here, however, where we now 
stand in the movement of Christian experience, 
that these revelations begin their portentous 
work. This is the state in which they have 
their greatest import and hold their greatest 
prominence ; it is preeminently their state. At 
the same time they form an important part in 
every subsequent state of the ascending Chris- 
tian life. It is in these revelations of Christian 
service that the ever-growing evidences of truth 
to the Christian heart are to be found. 

The passage from evidence to faith is largely 
spontaneous. In fact it so nearly approaches 

the involuntary that it has strong 
!fFaith ncrease appearance of being automatic. 

Still the last analysis of conscious- 
ness doubtless reveals a volitional element to be 
present, partaking at least of the nature of pas- 
sive consent. In the absence of inhibition, the 
spontaneous action of the psychical energies is 
to spring from enlarged corroborative knowledge, 
such as we have seen to accumulate, to greatly 
increased faith. Consciousness makes clear the 
whole process in such passage. We, therefore, 



168 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

step at once into the next state of experience in 
this movement in ascent. From the revelations 
arising in service there appears in consciousness 
a new state distinctly discernible as a positive 
increase of faith. Faith has been so fulfilled, 
even surpassed, in realization, so amazingly 
responded to in every act of reliant trust, so 
overwhelmingly reassured of the inexhaustible 
reserve and availability of divine provision, 
that it mounts up and reaches out with ever- 
enlarging vision and claim. This increase may 
be traced in consciousness as an expansion in 
four directions and thus more clearly mapped be- 
fore our gaze. 

Faith in its primary stage is bald acceptance 

of assertion. The promise is taken on its simple 

face without corroborating evi- 

Directions of In- ° 

crease: (i) in intei- dence so far as the content of con- 

ligence. . . j T . 

sciousness is concerned. It is, 
therefore, an act of volitional reliance, a de- 
terminate committal of self to Scriptural assur- 
ance. Only by such sheer faith is the expe- 
rience of salvation to be had. In the exercise 
of such faith experimental knowledge comes, 
revelations to consciousness multiply, and faith 
ever finds itself increasing in the intelligence 
of its exercise. Every faculty of the rational 
soul now cooperates with it. It no longer gropes 
its way in uncertainty and timidity or seeming 



THE STATES IN ASCENT 1C9 

presumptuous audacity. Its language now is : 
" I know whom I have believed." l The word 
of God is better understood through the revela- 
tions of experimental service so that the sphere 
of intelligent faith is more definitely appre- 
hended. Presumptuousness is restrained ; mis- 
uses are avoided ; fanaticisms are averted. Faith 
has taken to itself marked power to enlist in its 
action the entire range of intelligence. Its 
exercise is now characterized by calmness and 
wisdom which protect it from needless defeat 
and chagrin and give to it balance and steadi- 
ness multiplying its efficiency many-fold. 

A point of weakness in immature faith is its 
exceeding generality. Its appeal is for things 

distant and indefinite. It deals in 
zation. Specmli " wide-reaching concepts and terms. 

It hesitates to limit itself to specific 
objects. It shrinks from the definite grapple 
for individual ends. Its petition is in whole- 
sale, leaving to God the work of specialization. 
The revelations of service throw a flood of light 
on this early error in the exercise of faith. 
Faith is never answered in the general, but 
always in the specific ; item by item its response 
is received. It is found that faith acts freest 
when specific in its aim. It becomes the 
effective vehicle of sincere desire only when 

1 2 Tim. i. 12. 



170 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

under the particularization of such desire. This 
differentiation of faith's objects calls out faith's 
highest exercise. It is learned that the real 
greatness of faith consists in this, that nothing 
is counted too small for it to bring to God, 
provided there is a genuine need of Him. One 
of the clearest discoveries of service is that the 
effectiveness of faith varies inversely as the 
minuteness of its specialization. Thus faith 
becomes perceptibly simpler, increases in its 
power of specific claim, grows in its ability to 
press the promise for definite ends. It acquires 
facility in the grasp and presentation of indi- 
vidual needs. It enlarges in its capability of 
serving details, in its capacity for concentration 
upon definite, specific objects. It takes on 
marked increase in the direction of special- 
ization. 

Service is full of stimulating reactions. As 
we study these another dimension of faith's in- 
crease appears. It is very apparent 
(3) in intensity. that faith repeatedly answered is 
not faith satiated, but faith in- 
vigorated the rather. Out of its responses in 
service faith issues more reliant, more expectant, 
more intense. It was diffident ; now it is de- 
monstrative. It was timorous ; now it is fearless. 
It was confident ; now it is exultant. These 
changes show marked degrees of increase in the 



THE STATES IN ASCENT 171 

direction of intensity. The whole soul is en- 
kindled with a jubilant assurance. Every 
energy of the psychical life is aquiver with the 
holy enthusiasm of this intensified faith. Faith 
has thus swung into a new and masterful in- 
tensity. It now palpitates with an eager ex- 
pectancy of still larger victories. It is ready 
for burdens ; it is keen for difficulties. It chafes 
under delay as it waits for tasks. It is heroic 
with undaunted trust. 

" It laughs at impossibilities 
And cries, l It shall be done.' " 

In this manner, faith, under the stimulations of 
service, is seen in consciousness to grow more 
and more intense in its action, ever mounting 
towards an all-conquering assurance that ad- 
mits of no denial within the range of legitimate 
trust. 

All this is not a spasm ; it is not a gush of in- 
tensity that soon, exhausted in emotional effer- 
vescence, dies away. On the con- 
(4) in Persistence, trary, in the forcible even if 
inelegant parlance of the race, 
faith under the heats of service has caught its 
second wind. Its muscle is hardened ; its nerve 
is steadied. It is seen to be more capable of 
long-sustained action, of prolonged and weari- 
some siege. It is losing the sense of possible 



172 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

failure. It can ask and trust and wait, never 
varying from the attitude of confident expect- 
ancy. Service induces such pertinacity by the 
long record of uniform response. The conscious 
history, constituting such record, can never be 
discredited. It has been ascertained that time 
is no material element in the situation. To him 
who gives the response " One day is . 
as a thousand years and a thousand years as one 
day." l " In due season we shall reap if we faint 
not." 2 Apparent delay is but the ongoing of 
divine measures ; he who waits surely receives. 
Faith becomes totally disqualified for retreat. 
It increases in the power of steady untiring per- 
sistence. 

The soul under the revelations of service thus 
finds itself in possession of a faith ever increas- 
ing in the directions indicated and in turn as- 
serting itself continuously in the ascent of ex- 
perience. 

^Peteriii. 8. »Gal. vi. 9. 



VIII 

THE STATE8 IN ASCENT (Continued) 
(See Diagram V) 

Even such increasing faith as we have been 

studying in the last chapter is not a creative 

state in the conscious psychical 

Faith without succession. As we have empha- 

Initiative. r 

sized before in this discussion, faith 
is at the limit of an individual's own resources ; 
it is reliance on another. E very accretion of faith 
is of the same nature. The student of Christian 
psychology need never look in the region of con- 
sciousness for faith's immediate resultant state ; 
it is never there. A break in the consecutive- 
ness of conscious states ever follows faith's action 
so far as its direct effect on personal experience 
is concerned. It takes hold on God, and God 
and His immediate touch on the psychic pow- 
ers, in response to faith, always lie in the region 
of the subconscious. Hence the current of the 
movement we are following here dips again be- 
low the level of consciousness. 

The direct effect of such increase of faith as 
we have witnessed is a new and larger inflow 
of power through the increase of that faith's ap- 

173 



174 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

propriation. The receiving surface, so to speak, 

has been extended by the increase of faith and 

there has poured into the depths 

Response in the £ foe sou i a } ar pr er measure of spir- 

Subconscious. ° * 

itual energy. Of this enlarged con- 
tact with the Holy Spirit there is no conscious- 
ness, for it is the touch of the Spirit on the area 
of the subconscious. Of this actual influx of 
power, as it pours into the psychical area, 
there is not the least conscious perception. 
Search as we will the depths of the psychical 
being by the most penetrating introspection, not 
an inkling of the process, time or place of this 
inflow is discernible. Yet to omit recognition 
of its occurrence is to permit an unpardonable 
gap in the continuity of states. We have not, 
therefore, hesitated to again trace this unbroken 
line of continuity through the depths of the sub- 
conscious. Details of this subconscious process 
are impossible of delineation. It can only be con- 
ceived of as a simple impartation of added spirit- 
ual power, by action of the Holy Spirit, made 
possible by increased faith. The entrance of the 
power, by the action of the Holy Spirit, is ef- 
fected below the level of consciousness. 

There immediately appears a new and well- 
defined state in consciousness. It is a clear 
sense of an augmentation of spiritual energy. 
There is nothing in sight to indicate its source. 



THE STATES IN ASCENT 175 

Consciousness of strength is a very difficult con- 
dition to define ; but even relative degrees of 
energy have a way of registering 
ttoTofE U ne™ enta " themselves in conscious percep- 
tion. The conscious personality 
is clearly able to detect a definite growth in 
energy. The method by which consciousness 
takes cognizance of this fact is impenetrable ; 
that it does so is, however, indisputable. From 
all sources of information at our command, it 
may be positively asserted that up from the 
depths of the subconscious, where the Holy 
Spirit has responded to increased faith by an 
inpouring of spiritual power, there springs into 
consciousness a clear state of augmented energy, 
of being " strengthened with might by His Spirit 
in the inner man." 1 There are certain distinct 
points where this new consciousness takes on 
most definable outlines. The delineation of 
these points will, perhaps, approach as near a 
description of this state as it is possible for us 
to come. We will, therefore, take up these 
points of definition and examine them severally. 
As power increases the constant laboured ral- 
lying of it to its tasks diminishes. The work of 
Christian service may be effectively done, yet 
with constant and exhausting struggle. The 
will deliberately draws upon the spiritual facul- 

1 Eph. iii. 16. 



176 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

ties for all the energies present in them. In- 
crease of power is quickly perceptible in the dim- 
Points of Definition: inution of this fatiguing exertion. 
(i) Reduction Service is rendered as efficiently but 

with less of laborious volitional ef- 
fort. Greater power achieves as readily, and 
more so, but reduces the strain. The swimmer, 
making the same speed with less muscular ex- 
penditure, at once recognizes that he has come 
into the power of a stronger current. In a new 
measure is consciously known the meaning 
of that remarkable declaration : " It is God 
which worketh in you both to will and to do of 
His good pleasure." 1 Tasks, both of volition 
and execution, that before required the summon- 
ing of the utmost of energy, now are performed 
with perceptibly less of laborious exertion, less 
of enforced demand upon spiritual energy. 

While energy exhausts itself in present en- 
deavour there is no impulse to more exacting 

service. Spiritual power at its 
( 2 ) inclination to extreme limit loses all stimulative 

Larger Tasks. 

quality. On the contrary, rem- 
nant of unused psychical energy naturally be- 
comes a centre of outreaching impulse. In- 
clination to larger tasks now takes shape in 
consciousness. Augmentation of energy gives 
rise to a new appetency for larger service. Dis- 

1 Phil. ii. 13. 



THE STATES IN ASCENT 177 

content with the narrower range of former 
activities is engendered, and enlarged power 
seeks the enlarged tasks commensurate with its 
capacity. A new adjustment becomes necessary 
in the balance between the measure of energy 
and the exertions of service. Consciousness be- 
comes clearly possessed of a positive demand for 
such readjustment. Thus a distinctly defined 
inclination to larger tasks in service is another 
point where this new augmentation of energy 
evinces itself in consciousness. Such inclination 
is an anomaly, a positive aberration, unless there 
has occurred somewhere in the psychical area a 
new contribution of energy accounting for its 
presence. 

There remains in consciousness, after all this 

is said, another new and clearly cognizable sense. 

The feeling of limitation of energy 

Reserve* ° f * s g° ne - I n i^ s place has come 

another positive advance in con- 
scious perceptions. It is a sense of substantial 
reserve. It is the assuring apprehension of an 
outlying region of still unused power ready on 
call. The impression of such a reserve per- 
meates the psychical atmosphere. It is the 
farthest possible from a blind, boastful conceit. 
It is a humble recognition of the waiting abun- 
dance of a power other than self. It is the pres- 
sure of conferred energy over the entire area of 



178 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

consciousness. Under the assurance of this 
sense, one of the most powerful souls that ever 
lived cried out : " I can do all things through 
Christ which strengtheneth me." * This inpour- 
ing of divine energy into the subconscious area 
thus again defines itself in consciousness through 
a profound sense of contact with a reserve of 
power that no draught of service upon its 
resources in any appreciable measure exhausts. 
By no possibility can this sense be forced into 
any exactness of definition. It can only be 
described as the conscious impression of an un- 
limited accumulation of available energy within 
the psychical area. At these several points, 
which we have indicated, there seems to be a 
well-formulated state of conscious augmentation 
of energy. 

Psychical states have their measure ; they are 

circumscribed by limitations. Brain centres 

and nerve filaments have their 

ofcapadt X y Pan8i0n exact capacity, as an electric wire 
has its given voltage. But psy- 
chical capacities are not unalterably fixed. Un- 
der proper conditions they may expand indefi- 
nitely. In the consecutive states we have just 
been examining we have the conditions issuing 
in an inevitable psychical expansion. The ex- 
ertions of service, the illuminations of knowl- 

1 Phil. iv. 13. 



THE STATES IN ASCENT 179 

edge, the outreachings of faith, the augmenta- 
tions of energy, all these irresistibly conspire to 
effect a definite expansion of capacity. We are 
ushered into an advanced state of Christian ex- 
perience dominated by a clear sense of enlarged 
being, of growth in structure. This is not a 
simple elasticity, not a mere resilience under 
pressure ; it is actual extension in structure. It 
is increase in psychical area, in capability, in 
availability of faculty. The positive perceptions 
of consciousness make evident a larger psychical 
being even though the walls of the structure are 
not literally seen to push out or the ceilings to 
lift. Marked changes appear making unques- 
tionable the fact of such expansion of capacity, 
a clearer view of which will be had by a brief 
study of these changes. 

Coincident with the distinct augmentation of 

energy, delineated in the state just prior to this 

one, there has come a new and 

Shown by Changes : 

d)EaseofPos- conscious ease in its possession. 
There is a clear sense of adjust- 
ment to the new increment of power that has 
come into the soul. A decided and unusual 
ability of self-poise has come out in conscious- 
ness. The earlier sense of awkwardness in the 
possession of conferred power has gone. In its 
stead a feeling of greater ease and adequacy of 
receptivity pervades the entire being. All this 



180 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

speaks of a new and enlarged capacity. The 
psychical structure has adjusted itself to its new 
content. Such expansion has occurred as has 
made the conscious personality the easy re- 
cipient and possessor of the augmented energy 
pouring up from the subconscious by the re- 
sponsive action of the Holy Spirit. This new 
sense of adjustment to the possession of such in- 
creased power is ample evidence of an expansion 
of capacity commensurate with the present en- 
duement of power. The new psychical areas 
readily give place to the increased measures of 
energy. There is no strain, no sense of over- 
pressure. All is smooth, peaceful, capacious. 
There is unquestionably more room, and so is 
shown a distinct expansion of capacity. 

There is such a thing as psychical skill. It is 
the ability to wield mental faculty and power. 

It is the skill to make every ounce 
(a) Facility in use. of spiritual energy accomplish the 

most at the least cost of friction 
and delay. It is the soul having itself, its 
faculties, its energies well in hand to utilize all 
in the most effective manner to realize highest re- 
sults. It is the facile employment of psychical 
resources. This skill is a variable quantity. 
It grows with use ; it enlarges with the multi- 
plicity, difficulty and delicacy of tasks. Among 
the conditions we are now studying there ap- 



THE STATES IN ASCENT 181 

pears in consciousness a new facility in the uso 
of spiritual energy and faculty. Blunders are 
fewer ; movement is more perfect ; fear of mis- 
take lessens ; assurance of accuracy deepens ; 
strain of effort diminishes. Such new facility 
in the use of energy stands out as an indis- 
putable fact of consciousness. It is positive 
proof of a distinct increase of psychical capacity. 
It is another of the points of consciousness where 
expansion of capacity demonstrates and defines 
itself. 

Associated with the two changes in conscious- 
ness, which we have just considered, we dis- 
cover still another. There takes its 
infi?iing! nff f ° r place among the psychical condi- 
tions a new appetency ; an in- 
satiable yearning springs up in the life. The 
sense of a new emptiness arises. All that has 
been hitherto received is now inadequate. The 
cry of the entire being is for something more. 
It is a profound craving for a greater infilling. 
All this sense of the inadequacy of prior bestow- 
ments, this hunger for a measure of somewhat 
now wanting, this craving for an infilling of 
psychical areas now unoccupied, all this tells of 
a correlated expansion of capacity. There have 
been new and unfilled spaces opened up in the 
psychical being. So long as the spiritual areas 
remained the same and were charged to the full 



182 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

with former enduements of spiritual power, 
there was no call for more. But the instant the 
present occupancy pushed out the old limits and 
developed new territory of psychical being, new 
vacuity in spacial spiritual areas, that instant 
new demand was created and the craving of ex- 
panded capacity for infilling began. That crav- 
ing now enters as a demonstration of such ex- 
pansion. This expansion of capacity thus gives 
another assurance of reality by such irrepressible 
craving as it generates in consciousness. It 
throws the soul open towards that which alone 
can gratify it and voices an unceasing appeal for 
infilling ; and thus, with open soul and yearn- 
ing appeal, expanded spiritual capacity awaits 
response. 



IX 

THE STATES IN ASCENT (Continued) 
(See Diagram V) 

At the close of the preceding chapter we have 
found the Christian life once more at its extrem- 
ity. It has psychical areas Un- 
capacity Incapable fi j le( J J t hag naug ht with which 

of Self-filling. ° 

to gratify its insistent craving. 
The clamorous longing cries out with all the 
depth of an unutterable soul-hunger. New ca- 
pacities, expanded areas reach out with the in- 
satiable suction of a psychical vacuum and de- 
mand filling. We look for the response. Again 
the area of consciousness is a blank. The closest 
scrutiny reveals absolutely nothing in the way 
of direct conscious response to this craving of 
the soul. Such craving is positively powerless, 
either by action or reaction, to gratify itself. 
There appears no process, perceptible to us, by 
which an answering infilling can come. 

We have reached once more a point where the 
path of the movement we are studying evidently 

dips entirely beneath the threshold 
Response m the f consc i ousne ss. In the depths 

Subconscious. * 

of subconsciousness occur those 
spiritual transactions by which response to this 
craving is given. In that impenetrable region 

183 



184: STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

of the psychical being the Holy Spirit hears the 
call, perceives the craving and responds to the 
appeal of the expanding spirit. Into the wait- 
ing chambers of the subconscious being He pours 
all that divine fullness of life that packs to the 
utmost measure the expanding capacities. The 
tides of the infinite Life break through these in- 
sensible gateways of the psychical structure. 
Christ affirms this inevitable, though unper- 
ceivable, process when He says, " Blessed are 
they that hunger and thirst after righteousness : 
for they shall be filled." 1 He declares that the 
essence of His mission is that this might be so : 
" I came that they may have life and may have 
it more abundantly." 2 By the silent invisible 
passageways of the subconscious this deluge of 
life floods the soul in response to this new ca- 
pacity and craving for infilling. 

As the evident product of such infilling in the 

subconscious area there appears in consciousness, 

with no apparent causal conti- 

stat ! : , J f" Iarge " nuity, a definite transcendant state. 

ment of life. «/ ' 

It is a new ascent in the move- 
ment of Christian experience. There is a distinct 
enlargement of psychical life. The thrill of in- 
creased vitality tingles through the entire being. 
A spiritual exhilaration takes possession of con- 
sciousness. All of the functions of the psychic 

^att. v. 6. 2 Johnx. 10. 



THE STATES IN ASCENT 185 

life acquire keener powers and wider reach. The 
propulsions of spiritual force take on added 
strength of impulse. Consciousness clearly re- 
veals a plenitude of spiritual life never present 
before. The craving of the soul is strangely 
gratified. The expanded capacity is, for the 
time being, charged to the utmost with a new 
vital fullness. The conscious vacuum has re- 
ceived its filling. There are places in which this 
enlargement of life makes itself evident in con- 
sciousness, the study of which will make clearer 
the fact of such enlargement. By the separate 
consideration of these this state of consciousness 
will delineate itself in our thought as fully, per- 
haps, as it is possible for us to give it definition. 
Life is everywhere measured by its correspond- 
ences. Enlarged life always exhibits wider 
areas of realities into which it rises 

Places of Manifes- 

tation: (i) Area of and with which it correlates. 

Correspondence. /~i • ± 

Consciousness now comes into per- 
ception of truths and realities never touched 
before. Wider horizons of the spiritual realm 
open up to its knowledge and enjoyment. It is 
given a new sensitiveness, a clearer vision, greater 
power of assimilation, a farther reach of spiritual 
taste, an intensified relish, by which an extended 
spiritual world becomes its own. A larger life, 
with more spacious area of correspondences, has 
evidently somehow found its way into the soul. 



186 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

This new life is a distinct increase in vital meas- 
ure ; it is the acquirement of new quantities of 
psychical vitality. It is an impartation, by the 
Holy Spirit, of a new enduement of the divine 
life. The soul having acquired the psychical 
capacity is, by the very laws of psychical life and 
according to the promises of the word of God, 
coming into possession of that measure of eternal 
life for which it has made place. The increased 
area of conscious spiritual correspondences is 
thus one way by which the enlarged life makes 
itself manifest. 

The transcendant element of spiritual life con- 
sists in its afiectional functioning. Love is the 

supreme activity of the spiritual 
Affections ° f being. The range of that love is 

a reliable scale by which the meas- 
ure of spiritual life may be taken. In the enlarge- 
ment of life we are now considering there ap- 
pears in consciousness a widening outreach of 
love. Its objects are multiplied. What before 
had passed unheeded as trivial or ignoble is 
now taken warmly into its embrace. The former 
narrow selfishness of the life, as it now seems, 
becomes a wonder and often a shame. A strange 
and more considerate sensitiveness of affection 
that feels the presence of an ever-growing multi- 
tude of affectional objects has taken possession 
of the being. A tenderness of love, revealing a 



THE STATES IN ASCENT 187 

hitherto unknown delicacy and depth, develops 
in consciousness. The power to overcome former 
repulsion and loathing reveals a new and domi- 
nant mastery of love. Back of such an extended 
reach of the affections there can only be an en- 
larged life. There has by some means come 
into the soul an increase of life such as begets 
this enlarged functioning of the afFectional 
powers. The range of the affections thus be- 
comes another place at which the enlargement 
of life is made evident in consciousness. 

All degrees of psychical life have their corre- 
lated impulses. Such impulses are a reliable 
co-efficient of the life. So true is 

topttoS* ° f this that > S iven the im P uls es of a 
life, the deduction of its dimen- 
sions is a mere matter of psychical computation. 
The innate outgushing of life's energies seems 
to take to itself the channel of these impulses. 
Consciousness now exhibits a notable elevation 
of impulse. The scope and aim of the impulses 
have received a new uplift. Their course is 
towards the highest levels. Their objects are the 
true, the pure, the good, the eternal, and these 
in their superlative degree. They seem to be 
buoyant psychical forces, springing from un- 
fathomable depths, impelling the soul towards 
loftiest acquirement. They are the affinities of 
heavenly life seeking its own. Their uplift and 



188 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

invigoration are the indices of the presence of 
a larger life. " The sense of enlargement of 
life may be so uplifting that personal motives 
and inhibitions, commonly omnipotent, become 
too insignificant for notice, and new reaches of 
patience and fortitude open out." 1 Such im- 
pulses spring not from psychical voids. Their 
source must be a new increment of divine life, 
as such life alone can project them into con- 
sciousness. Their very altitude makes evident 
the positive enlargement that has come to the 
spiritual life and is another way by which 
that enlargement manifests itself in conscious- 
ness. 

In the growth of spiritual life all of these 

states in ascent combine and mingle, preceding 

and succeeding each other as each 

ofstlt C es! mination * n turn P re P ares tne wa y f° r a 
more mature and perfect action 

of the other. The whole is a composite process 
and what we have attempted to do in this 
examination is simply an untwisting of the 
thread of parts that compose this complex up- 
ward movement. The process is a cumulative 
one. The riper richer states are the later, the 
product and fruitage of all that has gone before, 
a constantly rising tide of attainment. On its 
crest the most remarkable state of all takes in- 

1 James, "Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 273. 



THE STATES IN ASCENT 189 

creasingly definite outline in consciousness, the 
culmination and ever-ascending goal of genuine 
Christian growth. 

We come now to this culminating state in the 

series in ascent. It is the one to which all 

others are tributary, for which 

State : Approxima- ° 

tion to the Christ- they are given their place and 
function. It is a progressive state, 
always acquiring its constituent elements but 
never complete in the measure of their pos- 
session. As the ripe product of all that we 
have been studying in Christian salvation and 
growth there takes shape in consciousness defi- 
nite approximation to the Christ-spirit. We 
are not here speaking of the external conduct 
of Christ except as it is a medium by which we 
get a vision of the peerless spirit behind it. It 
is the state of consciousness in the soul of Christ 
that is the resplendent type of the crowning 
acquirement of Christian experience. It is the 
Christ-spirit taking shape in the consciousness 
of His genuine disciple. Adequate definition 
of that spirit must ever transcend us. Its 
depth of love, its perfection of purity, its full- 
ness of life, its might of faith, its omnipotence 
of impulse, its unison with the heavenly, its 
communion with God, all overwhelm us even 
in the meagre glimpses we are able to get of 
their splendid content. There are even here, 



190 STATES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

however, certain distinct points in consciousness 
where this approximation to the Christ-spirit 
takes definable form and with these we must be 
content in our present discussion. 

The processes active in these states in ascent 
are such that the spiritual faculties are being 

Forms of this ap- constantly put into better condi- 
proximation: (i) in tion to understand more and more 
of the nature of the Christ-spirit. 
The elements that comprise that spirit are ever 
dawning upon the growing soul of the Chris- 
tian. What was once a puzzle in the Christ- 
spirit by development of experience in service is 
made to take shape in intelligible terms. In- 
terpretation of the Christ-consciousness is an 
ever-growing acquirement of the correctly-poised 
and aggressive Christian. It is an infinitely 
progressive art, this penetration to the inner 
soul of the Man of Galilee. New visions of that 
wondrous spirit are ever breaking over the per- 
ceptions. Larger comprehensions of its fathom- 
less nature are among the rich rewards of the 
soul expanding in Christian growth. New 
angles of vision, fresh gleams of light, newly 
acquired powers of penetration and perception, 
clearer revelation by the Holy Spirit, all con- 
spire to such an ever-enlarging understanding of 
the Christ-spirit. 

Each new comprehension of the spirit of 



THE STATES IN ASCENT 191 

Christ carries with it an associate advance in 
the acquirement of that spirit. The enlarging 
processes of growth also put the 
(a) in Acquirement. S oul into readiness to take possi 

sion of the new vision in con- 
stantly increasing measure. Its expanding 
power of appreciation makes it an eager devotee 
to immediate attainment. The divine Spirit 
waits only for a chance to do the work, and so 
the newly-discovered phase of the Christ-spirit is 
as quickly as possible made a part of the soul- 
life. In such a manner that Christ-spirit steadily 
acquires increasing proportions in the area of 
consciousness ; its qualities multiply, enlarge 
and intensify. The ascent in acquirement, 
though by accretions imperceptible by reason 
of their minuteness and gradualness, is clearly 
cognizable by comparison of stages more or less 
apart from each other. The aggregate of minute 
acquisitions, thus perceived, makes such achieve- 
ment a very certain fact of consciousness. More 
and more the similitudes to the Christ-spirit ap- 
pear in the psychical life. 

All this, at its best, is only a very remote ap- 
proximation. The excellences and perfections 
of the spirit of Jesus Christ were such that it 
ever rises in still more lofty and unapproachable 
glory as the ascending Christian climbs to higher 
points of view and to greater capacities of ac- 



PART II 
A Study in Origins 



THE GREATER TASK OF CHRISTIAN PSY- 
CHOLOGY 

We now enter upon a most serious and im- 
portant stage of our inquiry. We are driven, by 

the compulsion of events in cur- 
Facing the Facts. r ent thought, to uncover the core 

of this entire discussion in explicit 
and unequivocal terms. The Christian world 
must face the facts and give them deferential 
and exhaustive consideration. To evade them 
is to demonstrate ourselves devoid of true Chris- 
tian candour and valour. To coddle ourselves in 
conceited and reiterated invincibility is to con- 
vict ourselves of a superficial foolhardiness un- 
worthy of our sacred cause. To be indolent in 
this vital affair or oblivious of the situation is to 
give to the assailants of Christian experience 
and life the immense advantage of the earlier 
exploitation, in their interests, of the territory 
involved and to fasten upon ourselves a disas- 
trous handicap of ignorance of the field and 
lack of familiarity with required methods of re- 
search. We, therefore, proceed to grapple with 
the supreme problem of present-day Christian 

197 



198 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

thought. With a sober sense of the depth and 
range of the problem, of the magnitude of such 
an undertaking, and of the inadequacy of this 
attempt as an exposition, in any measure ex- 
haustive, of the vital and tremendous truths to 
be demonstrated, the writer seeks to do his part 
towards the clearer and more satisfactory eluci- 
dation of the psychical processes underlying the 
conscious states of Christian experience. 

The careful student of Christian thought has 
not failed to note the fact that the basis of ef- 
fective apologetics has been stead- 

A New Basis of • i t • n. • -i . 

Apologetics. ily smiting during recent years. 

By this is not meant that the old 
arguments are abandoned as invalid, but that 
their statement has been essentially recast, and 
their relative value and comparative position, in 
point of importance, have undergone radical 
change. This has been increasingly true until, 
for our day, the supreme and vital evidences of 
the truth of Christianity do not consist in the 
proof of positions hitherto thought to be posi- 
tively essential. The emphasis of finality in 
proof has been placed upon entirely different 
positions in demonstration. What was before 
thought to be of primary importance has become 
secondary and tributary. What has been con- 
sidered fully demonstrative has been made only 
corroborative ; and what was once brought out 



TASK OF CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY 1 

with minor emphasis is now given the chief 
place and made to carry the burden of demon- 
stration. In these ways the basis of accepted 
apologetics has been radically changing. 

The inerrancy of Bible history is not felt to 

be so vital to the proof of Christianity as it once 

was. Accredited authors may be 

It is not Reliability j • i /> . i • 1 • • i • 1 .. j 

of History. deprived oi their historical right to 

certain writings with which their 
names have been always associated, and the 
truth contained in those writings be thereby in 
no measure invalidated. Indeed writings ac- 
credited to given authors may be undeniably 
shown to be composed of distinct parts which 
could not have been recorded by the same writer 
and in the same period. Still this may not in 
the least affect the credibility of any of these 
parts. Thus the emphasis on Bible history has 
been modified. It has come to be seen that 
such history may indeed be shown to contain 
actual error and yet the truth of Christianity be 
in no way affected thereby. 

The actuality of ancient miracles was once 

considered very vital to the demonstration of 

the truth of Christianity. But it 

It rlV DOt , Credibility has been a growing conviction that 

of Miracles. o o 

the miraculous nature of many 
alleged miracles may be very materially modi- 
fied and the truth of the Gospel in not the 



200 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

slightest degree impaired. The verity of Chris- 
tianity, as a divine saving agency, does not stay 
or go on the proof or disproof of any alleged 
miraculous event of a remote century of Bible 
history. The supreme defense of the Gospel 
does not rest on any such basis of apologetics. 
The essential meaning of the term, miracle, may 
undergo fundamental modifications of the earlier 
concept, and the proof of reputed miraculous oc- 
currences may utterly fall down, and yet the 
verity of the Gospel, as a divine saving measure, 
be as absolutely demonstrable as ever. 

The fulfillment of prophecy was long viewed 

as one of the invulnerable demonstrations of the 

divine Presence in the gospel 

it is not Fulfillment m0V ement. With the increasing 

of Prophecy. ° 

uncertainty of the interpretation 
of portions of Scripture formerly considered un- 
questionably prophetic in their nature, with the 
confusion of the fulfillment of prophecy with the 
general altruistic development of human history, 
the argument from prophecy has not retained all 
of its former emphasis. The range of admitted 
prophecy has grown less. Assertion of fulfill- 
ment has grown more cautious. While the 
abundant fulfillment of undoubted prophecy is 
one of the wonders of the gospel movement it 
is still clearly seen that this cannot be wisely 
postulated as one of the prime proofs of the 



TASK OF CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY 201 

truth of the Gospel. The vagueness of the 
terms of much of prophecy makes interpretation 
a very difficult and by no means certain thing. 
The reputed fulfilling events are so difficult of 
positive identification that way is made for much 
hesitancy in affirming fulfillment. The new 
factors in the situation generate an atmosphere 
of uncertainty relative to prophecy that very 
naturally diminishes the emphasis placed upon 
it and makes it less to be depended upon as a 
prime factor in Christian apologetics. 

The forces of improvement with which Chris- 
tianity has blessed all nations in which it has 
been given any place have long 

Minki°nd Benefits to been re g arQ, ed as among the 
strongest evidences of its divine 
essence. When taken as a whole, these uni- 
versal beneficent results of its presence are very 
strong presumptive proof of its heavenly origin. 
But beneficial effects are not always the result of 
truth. Error, under given conditions and for 
special periods, may have exceedingly good ef- 
fects. Superstitions may have very salutary re- 
straints for specific social conditions. Myths 
may serve their time with excellent fruits in 
popular motive and deed. But times are ahead 
when such conditions will change and such re- 
sults will cease. The argument from beneficial 
results has future possible exigencies to let into 



202 A STUDY IN OEIGINS 

the account. What proves good now may not a 
century hence, the other side of revolutions or 
evolutions where social conditions are trans- 
formed. Present day apologetics has felt the 
necessity of modifying its emphatic attitude on 
the demonstration of the Gospel from either na- 
tional or racial benefits. The argument in its 
strongest putting carries much of presumption 
but falls short of demonstration at all positive. 

One of the most impressive proofs of the valid- 
ity of the claims of the Gospel has been its evi- 
dent superiority among the relig- 

It is not Superiority iong of ^ WQY \& But it haS 

among Religions. 

come to be felt, in the thinking of 
men, that the fact that it is the best we have is 
no proof of its divine source and essence. The 
best, in comparison with several imperfect, is 
not overwhelming proof of any great intrinsic 
worth in the thing itself. The sense has evi- 
dently been growing among men that actual 
and even marked superiority falls far short of 
any adequate demonstration of divine origin and 
presence. A fortunate combination of talent, in 
the crossing and recrossing of historical currents, 
might have united in the construction of a sys- 
tem of religious thought, like the Gospel, and a 
religion surpassing all others be the outcome. 
Such mere superiority could not be urged as a 
demonstration of first rank in establishing its 



TASK OF CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY 203 

divine origin. We discover here again the evi- 
dent traces of a shifting of emphasis. Accepted 
apologetics has materially changed its attitude 
in regard to the demonstrability of the truth of 
Christianity from its conceded superiority to all 
other religions known to man. 

None of these arguments have, however, been 

in any real sense superseded. They are as valid 

to-day, in every essential feature, 

These Tributary ag tfa fa ever been The 

but not Basal. •/ 

modification is in the degree of 
their positiveness. The only question with 
reference to them now is as to their true place 
in the line of defense. They have lost some de- 
gree of their formidableness. Their measure of 
vulnerability has been seen to be greater than 
hitherto supposed. They have evidently lost in 
elements that are necessary in the firing line. 
They should not be crowded into the front 
rank. They form substantial support, superb 
background for the prime argument on whose 
effectiveness the whole issue swings. The basis 
of apologetics, at least within the area of practi- 
cal thinking, has distinctly shifted in the items 
indicated. These older arguments have become 
secondary and tributary. They reinforce and 
corroborate, but there their function ceases. 
They have been relegated to the immediate rear 
but by no means dismissed from the field. We 



204 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

hail them still as splendid and indispensable 
energies in the championship of gospel truth. 

In the apologetics of our day, the one argu- 
ment upon which surpassing and ever-increas- 
ing emphasis is being placed is that 
The New Basis: w hich demonstrates the super- 

God in Experience. -t 

natural work of God in Christian 
experience and character. " The only valuable 
confession of the divinity of Christ must follow 
His own work upon us, not precede it as a con- 
dition." * This is the vital point of triumphant 
Christian defense. " At last men are beginning 
to discover the ludicrous blunder they have 
been making. On their astonished eyes the 
truth is beginning to dawn that while church, 
Bible, history, and philosophy have all their 
religious uses, it is not upon any of them that 
religion ultimately rests. Her stronghold is not 
in anything man has done. It is what is in 
himself. Her final evidence is a psychological 
one." 2 " Even if all historic factors were to 
prove fallacious and be abandoned there remains 
a Christ born within. To cling to this is the 
new psychological orthodoxy." 3 The assailants 
of the Gospel, even the doubts of the very elect, 
are largely withdrawing from historical ground 

1 King, " Reconstruction in Theology," p. 246. 
3 Brierly, " Ourselves and the Universe," p. 263. 
3 Hall, "Adolescence," Vol. II, p. 338. 



TASK OF CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY 205 

and from secondary positions in the field and 
concentrating on this one tremendous issue. 
No movement in apologetics was ever so momen- 
tous. It is the one gigantic struggle at the one 
strategic point in the whole field of Christian 
truth. It is gigantic in the issues it involves. 
All interests in the entire future of Christianity 
are being staked here. If the fact of the active 
supernatural in Christian experience is proven, 
then all other corroborative arguments easily 
follow. Once the supernatural activity of God 
in the soul is fully established then His provi- 
dential and supernatural supervision of Bible 
history, the action of miraculous agency at 
seasonable times and places, the vision of 
prophecy and the corresponding fulfillment, the 
superhuman uplift of the nations and the con- 
quest of all religions, all follow as a logical and 
imperative corollary. If, on the other hand, it 
could be proven that there is no divine action in 
Christian experience then all other arguments 
are swept away as with a triumphant flood of 
adverse demonstration. If God fails to appear 
at the culmination of all His work of grace, then 
it may well be conceded that He has had no 
hand in the whole procedure, and all apologetics 
lapses into a hopeless and ruinous chaos. Chris- 
tian thought is thus being driven to its final 
crucial stand. Apologetics will more and more 



206 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

base itself on the supernatural activity of God 
in the soul of the Christian in the evolution of 
his experience and character as the one climactic 
fact by which the whole system of saving truth 
stands or falls. 

We begin, therefore, to get some glimpse of 
the importance and magnitude of the scope of 

Christian psychology. As a whole 
two Propositions, the world of Christian thought has, 

in but very slight measure, ap- 
prehended the facts involved. This movement 
goes to the very bottom of things psychical and 
experimental. In the accomplishment of this 
work two distinct and profound propositions 
must be maintained. To get a comprehensive 
view of the endeavour we must take a careful 
and candid survey of the field of these two prop- 
ositions. 

The first of these propositions may be stated 
as follows : At the core of the Christian life, the 

active Agent in its experimental 
(i) God Beneath saving work is the personal om- 

Experience. o J. 

nipotent Spirit of God. This is a 
definite postulate, claiming to uncover the very 
origin of the deepest things in Christian experi- 
ence. In real essence, the issue is solely as to 
what takes place beneath the threshold of con- 
sciousness. We are standing at the chasm in 
the continuity of conscious states. We see 



TASK OF CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY 207 

clearly the last of these states ; we look ahead 
and see as clearly the state that next appears in 
consciousness, bearing indubitable evidence that 
something has occurred between the two, mak- 
ing the latter possible. What was it that oc- 
curred in the intervening depths of the psychical 
area ? We are seeking to penetrate the obscure 
region of the subconscious. We are taking the 
position that in that region the Holy Spirit is 
personally present, is acting on the psychical 
conditions there existing and producing such 
changes that the next subsequent state in con- 
sciousness arises therefrom. God is at the 
origin ; His action is the origin. The issue is 
momentous and vital. If there is failure here 
all is lost and Christian apologetics is forever 
driven from the field so far as the intelligent 
thinking of the future is concerned. 

The undertaking is strenuous enough to take 
the breath of the bravest and strongest. Facts 

must be sought far and near. 
ITSZISZS? They must be scrutinized with un- 

wearying diligence. They must 
be forced to give up the utmost attainable infor- 
mation. Every intimation from the profundi- 
ties of the subconscious must be seized and pre- 
served. Accumulation of corroborative material 
must be vigilant and exhaustive. The massing 
of evidence must be convincing, if possible 



208 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

overwhelming. Deliberate preparation must be 
made for increasing efficiency in this critical 
work. Men must be schooled for this specific 
task. No tyro can engage in this struggle ; he 
would be powerless to handle and utilize the 
subtle and evasive material involved. The 
Christian world must more and more equip it- 
self for this supreme effort of the centuries. It 
is no passing flurry of a day ; it is on for succes- 
sive generations. The presence and activities of 
God in the soul of the Christian must be made 
more and more certain by the indisputable in- 
terpretation of phenomena clearly present in the 
spiritual life. These phenomena must be given 
their just and adequate exposition. They are 
as rugged and universal facts as any known to 
man. They have been very indifferently ex- 
ploited and very meagrely formulated as demon- 
strable realities. Place must now be made for 
them in reputable scientific thought. In this 
way the proposition they prove will ultimately 
take its place among the established demonstra- 
tions of psychological science. The Holy Spirit 
will be clearly seen to be beneath the experience 
and life of the Christian. His divine and mar- 
vellous work will be made to stand out in strik- 
ing and conquering distinctness. The great and 
final conquest in religious thought will have 
been achieved. 



TASK OF CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY 209 

The second proposition is preeminently a de- 
fensive one. It is shaped to meet an attacking 

movement. It may be stated as 
£.'£££? Allows : Psychic, or neural, react- 

ive processes are totally inade- 
quate to account for the phenomena that arise 
out of the subconscious in the personal expe- 
rience of the Christian life. The insidious pos- 
tulate, which makes necessary the maintenance 
of this proposition, avers that at the core of the 
Christian life are merely certain, not unfamiliar, 
reactive psychic processes perfectly accounting 
for every apparently superhuman phenomenon 
in the experience and life of the Christian. It 
is maintained by the supporters of this hypoth- 
esis that by known laws of purely brain-action 
every psychic phenomenon of Christian con- 
sciousness and subconsciousness can be fully ex- 
plained without resort to the inferential pres- 
ence and operation of any supernatural spiritual 
Power. It is alleged that the processes of sug- 
gestion and auto-suggestion, with their associate 
subconscious reactions, purely reactions of nerve 
energy in the nerve-centres of the brain, duplic- 
able in numerous situations where no religious 
features are involved and no possible responsive 
action of the Holy Spirit could be introduced in 
explanation, are all-sufficient to account for 
everything that occurs in Christian experience 




210 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

with a seeming obscure origin, lying below the 
threshold of consciousness. 

This position is taken in all the baldness of 
specific declaration in but few instances. Its 

promotion goes on in a very subtle 
proposmon 1 ! 11118 Dut effective way. Statements are 

made whose inevitable implica- 
tions support such a position. The ignoring 
of any need of a supernatural factor, by com- 
plete obliviousness of it, eliminates it from the 
situation through contemptuous silence as if too 
trivial to merit any mention at all. One would 
have ample occasion to suppose a divine part 
was never even conjectured in these processes. 
Much of the literature of this subject is per- 
meated with the presence of such an attitude. 
An insidious leaning of sympathy in this direc- 
tion is covertly betrayed in the treatment of 
the matter. The spirit of much of what is said 
and written by many of the medical profession 
tends to induce this view. Students of the 
physiological phases of the subject drop intima- 
tions of the physical basis of all such phenom- 
ena. The movement has not as yet been defi- 
nitely formulated. It is so radical, sweeping 
and iconoclastic that it hesitates to come out 
into the open. But the issue is moving, by in- 
evitable stages, towards an explicit challenge for 
proof and an alignment of forces. When that 



TASK OF CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY 211 

day fully comes the battle for survival will have 
opened its final and desperate struggle. Just 
now it is taking the form of a subtle atmosphere 
of compromising suggestion, pervading, like a 
paralyzing miasma, much of the related thinking 
of our day. Its permeating presence and gath- 
ering volume do unmeasured harm to vital god- 
liness. 

The task of classifying the states of Christian 
experience and locating them in the psychical 
_ ._ D . . area is only a part of the work of 

Christian Psychol- •/ -t 

ogy to Prove Christian psychology. When that 

Propositions. i 

has been done a still more difficult 
and important task remains. It must enter 
upon a most minute and painstaking study of 
the entire field of psychical activity in any way 
involved in the movement of Christian experi- 
ence, the design being to accumulate every par- 
ticle of evidence that will throw any light on 
what takes place in the subconscious area giving 
rise to the states of consciousness in that experi- 
ence. Its work now becomes such a study in 
experimental origins. The states of conscious- 
ness must be rigorously scrutinized both to de- 
tect every phase of those states that has any 
causal connections with, and to discover exactly 
those effects that are resultant from, what evi- 
dently has occurred in the region of subcon- 
sciousness. 



212 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

This is the work of gathering the evidence in 
proof of the propositions just stated. These ma- 
terials are recondite and difficult 
Task Its Greater of access. Christian psychology is 
the only systematic effort capable 
of performing this task. It alone has the sym- 
pathetic temper to descry and bring out the facts 
that make evident the active presence of the 
Holy Spirit underlying the subconscious states 
of the Christian life. It alone has the disposi- 
tion to find God in these depths. It alone is 
prepared to handle all the facts in evidence. To 
turn all the critical work of gathering these 
facts over to irreligious psychological research is 
to abandon the cause we cherish to unsympa- 
thetic, if not inimical, hands. " Our only anx- 
iety can be — and there is room for anxiety here 
— that the investigators be really competent ; 
and, particularly in the investigation of moral 
and religious problems, competence requires per- 
sonal experience in the sphere investigated. 
. . . With the best intentions, in the name 
of science, some exceeding crude attempts at in- 
vestigation of religion have been made for sim- 
ple lack of interpreting experience." * No work 
in all the range of research needs so fully the 
spirit of the genuine Christian student, having 
had a positive personal experience, as this search 

1 King, " Reconstruction in Theology," p. 50. 



TASK OF CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY 213 

for the evidences of the divine presence in the 
deep places of the soul's life. If Christian psy- 
chology does not gather and present this evi- 
dence in scientific form it will not be forthcom- 
ing. It is, moreover, equally true that nothing 
will meet and overcome the naturalistic and 
godless interpretation of religious psychical 
phenomena, if Christian psychology leaves it 
alone. The only sufficient movement that can 
amass the facts to prove the utter inadequacy of 
psychic reactions to account for the phenomena 
of Christian experience is intelligent Christian 
psychological research. It must be exhaustively 
familiar with all the known laws of nerve reac- 
tions. It must know thoroughly all the estab- 
lished processes of suggestion. It must have all 
such facts so in hand, their limitations as well 
as their possibilities, that there shall be permit- 
ted no attributing of impossible functions to the 
interaction of nerve energies. Conjecture and 
unfounded assumption must be effectually curbed 
in whatever direction they may attempt to act. 
" The religious teacher must not allow ignorant 
and excitable persons to mistake neurological 
disturbances, without any ethical content, for 
manifestations of the Spirit." 1 On the other 
hand, the actual work of God in the depths of 
the Christian life, assured by unprejudiced in- 

1 Bowne, "The Christian Life," p. 61. 



214 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

terpretation of psychical facts, must be kept in- 
violate by an open and unanswerable defense. 
Here lies the culminating task of Christian psy- 
chology. It stands the inveterate guardian of 
the supernatural life of God in the soul of the 
Christian. It repudiates spurious constructions 
of spiritual phenomena by which the personal 
divine element is eliminated from the processes 
of Christian experience. It is set to keep the 
way clear into the depths of the saved soul, 
where ever moves the regnant Spirit of God in 
His wonderful work of generating specific states 
in the life of the Christian. 



II 

THE PHENOMENA IN QUESTION 

We are now in position to be specific in the 
designation of the phases of Christian experi- 
ence involved in this portion of 
Located in the our discussion. The localization 

Subconscious. 

of states in the psychical area, 
which we have considered in detail in Part I, 
and mapped in the accompanying diagrams, 
makes it possible to identify, with great pre- 
cision, those states that occur in the obscure 
depths of the mental life and, for that reason, 
giving occasion to investigate the cause or 
causes producing them. These states, located 
in the subconscious region, are primarily the 
phenomena in question ; but inasmuch as the 
states occurring in consciousness spring so 
directly and unquestionably from them, the 
entire phenomena of the life of the Christian 
are most vitally concerned in this inquiry. The 
whole course of Christian experience is con- 
stantly vitalized and moulded by impulsions 
from the subconscious. It would, however, 
prove an endless and infinitely complicated task, 
practically impossible, to undertake to go into 

215 



216 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

all the minuteness and intricacy of the phenom- 
ena of these interrelations. For the purposes 
of our present discussion fortunately this is 
needless ; for what may be shown to be true of 
some of these phenomena will readily be con- 
ceded to be as true of all of obviously like 
nature. 

The end sought in this effort is the demon- 
stration of a principle of the life of the Chris- 
tian and not an encyclopedic and 
Three Phenomena- exna ustive delineation of all of 

clusters. 

the minute and specific phenomena 
of that life. Hence we shall take up for de- 
tailed investigation only three of the most 
prominent and vital phenomena and phenom- 
ena-clusters of the subconscious states. These 
are (1) the subconscious counterpart of Convic- 
tion for Sin ; (2) the cluster of subconscious 
states underlying Newness of Life in conver- 
sion ; (3) the other cluster of subconscious states 
issuing in Possession of Power for the estab- 
lished, or sanctified, life. A reference to Dia- 
gram III clearly places these states before the 
eye as they lie in the region of the subconscious. 
These all appear in the Cataclysmic States ; the 
second and third of them are, either in full- 
fledged or modified form, in both the Cataclys- 
mic States and the States under Christian 
Nurture. The solution of the problem of these 



THE PHENOMENA IN QUESTION 217 

potent, deep-lying phenomena-centres of the 
Christian life settles the question of all other 
similar states occurring in the subconscious. 
These are preeminently the storm-centres for 
coming years. They are the battle-fields of future 
apologetics. For the sake of clearness of thought 
we should have their specific details well in 
mind in this discussion. We shall, therefore, 
dwell at some length upon each of them even at 
the risk of the repetition of somewhat already 
brought out in the earlier discussion of them. 
Conviction for Sin is one of the most striking 
phenomena in the whole range of normal Chris- 
tian experience. The dormant 

JteSf" ° f C ° n " Sense of Sin is merel y its sluggish 
antecedent, growing more inactive 
with the years of repression. Conviction comes 
as a distinct phenomenon. In it perceptions of 
moral distinctions become strangely awake. 
Peculiar spiritual light pervades consciousness. 
The Tightness of divine law is made startlingly 
clear. The blackness of sin is set forth in alarm- 
ing relief. The foreshadowings of lamentable 
consequences to the life are brought out with 
vivid outline. Not only are the mental per- 
ceptions so strangely awakened, but the emotional 
sensibilities are profoundly stirred. The feeling 
of guilt is often aroused to painful intensity and 
chagrin for sin is awakened to agonizing acute- 



218 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

ness. Fear of consequences is frequently quick- 
ened to a foreboding apprehensiveness of im- 
pending disaster. The entire range of the sensi- 
bilities, from some subtle cause, is thus made 
unusually active and sensitive to sin in the life. 
This peculiar and painful awakening appears 
unheralded in the mental area. The causal im- 
pulsions seem to come from regions beyond, or 
beneath, consciousness. What is the real origin 
of such conviction ? What is its producing cause ? 
Whence this light that breaks over sin and 
brings out so vividly its heinous features? 
Whence this distressing arousal of the emotions, 
culminating at times in unutterable anguish, at 
the presence of sin in the life ? This problem 
must have its solution. These facts cannot be 
ignored. This inquiry will not subside, in the 
minds of the thoughtful, until it has reached 
some reasonable settlement. These are some of 
the phenomena in question. 

The processes of experimental conversion form 

a cluster of phenomena unparallelled for their 

brilliancy and subtility in all the 

g ° ri * in of psychical field. The predominant 

Conversion. * J r 

occurrence, pervading and charac- 
terizing the whole cluster, is transformation. It 
is a scene of, as it were, psychical magic. As 
we look on the surface in consciousness we see 
the superficial reconstructive changes. The 



THE PHENOMENA IN QUESTION 219 

profound underlying agency and forces are un- 
seen and forever imperceptible. Sensations en- 
tirely new spring up into the conscious area. A 
new era opens in the mental field. Condemna- 
tion, present through the years even though in 
quiescent form, perhaps of late awakened into 
painful intensity, drops completely out of con- 
sciousness. The stress of mental anguish posi- 
tively ceases. Peace and joy take the place of 
distress and gloom. Day rises upon the soul's 
night either in one glad burst of light or by 
gradual stages of dawn. A new, indescribable 
spiritual ecstasy often makes this stage incom- 
parably brilliant and epochal through its be- 
wildering contrasts. Out from the glory of this 
psychical convulsion, in its more violent types, 
there appear in the field of consciousness new 
conditions in the spiritual structure. Uplifts 
and subsidences have changed the whole topog- 
raphy of the conscious area. The individual 
looks upon a new world within himself. Forms 
of desire and passion, before predominant, have 
sunk out of sight. Tastes, affections and atti- 
tudes, hitherto totally absent, have come into 
commanding prominence in this area. Im- 
pulses, before masterful, have been seemingly 
banished and displaced by others diametrically 
different. The spiritual structure, as it appears 
in consciousness, is a new creation. Who, or 



220 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

what, is the author of this creation? What 
energies have effected these changes ? What 
spiritual states underlie them, projecting them 
into consciousness ? These searching queries 
open the depths where lie concealed the pro- 
found phenomena in question. 

A similar group of phenomena appears in the 
inauguration of the established, or sanctified, 
life, the life maturely and de- 
sessioTof Power 3 " liberately set apart to an unvary- 
ing career of holiness, and the pos- 
session of power adequate to such a life. The 
psychical field containing this group presents to 
the penetrating student a series of phenomena 
only second in profundity and brilliancy to 
those just considered in conversion. The pre- 
dominant occurrence pervading and character- 
izing this group is undergirding of energy. It 
is another scene of bewildering mystery. The 
profound forces that are thrusting their products 
up into consciousness are totally indiscernible. 
Chagrin and condemnation for the wretched im- 
perfections of past service sink completely out of 
consciousness. A new and strange steadiness of 
psychical equipoise pervades the soul. Resist- 
ance to evil becomes uniform instead of fluctuat- 
ing. Peace rests in unchanging calm upon the 
entire psychical area. External storm has lost 
its power to penetrate these inner regions of the 



THE PHENOMENA IN QUESTION 221 

spiritual life. A diffusing sense of the posses- 
sion of power for activity in service permeates 
the psychical structure. A hunger for participa- 
tion in the saving work of God seizes upon 
every faculty of the soul. A tireless propulsion 
crowds the entire being on into holy service. 
The behest of an unwearying unction for action 
urges the personality like the call of another 
world. Again we ask whence come these un- 
questionable realities in consciousness ? What 
contacts have been made through which issue 
these new energies in the life ? How are we to 
account for these evident changes and forces? 
All of these questions point to the underlying 
phenomena that we must now consider. These 
phenomena in question, deep-lying and difficult 
of access as they are, must be identified and de- 
fined with the utmost precision possible, for here 
lies the crucial field of Christian evidences. 

There are certain pertinent facts concerning 
these phenomena that must here be carefully 
noted. They lie below the thresh- 
Beyond aii Direct old of consciousness. They occur 

Observation. •J 

in that region of the psychical 
field where there is no mental perception of 
their existence. All is blank where they tran- 
spire. No amount of investigation will ever 
open these regions direct to the observer. They 
are more impenetrable than the remotest stellar 



222 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

spaces. The depths of the psychical microcosm 
are more inscrutable than those of the material 
cosmos. Let the indomitable scientific spirit 
make here no rash promises of discovery. It 
seems beyond question that no possible untrod 
avenues of approach to these phenomena await 
the explorer of the future. It is with no hope 
of ever penetrating to their immediate midst 
that the study of these phenomena is under- 
taken. 

While all this is true, these phenomena are 
still proper, even imperative, objects of the most 
Their study Pos- painstaking and persistent study. 

sible by Two Meth- rr\ ill xl 

ods : (i) By infer- J- wo methods are open in these m- 
ence - vestigations, both of which have 

specific advantages making the unbiased student, 
seeking the utmost information, ready to em- 
ploy each to the limit of its reliable availability. 
One of these is the method by inference. This 
method is the gathering of relevant psycholog- 
ical facts and their correlation with such pos- 
sible occurrences in the subconscious as may 
constitute the phenomena in question and be 
considered in any measure adequate to account 
for the resultant states in Christian conscious- 
ness. From ascertained facts it presents as prob- 
able certain processes beyond psychical vision to 
account for phenomena in experience not other- 
wise explained. However unsatisfactory and 



THE PHENOMENA IN QUESTION 223 

inadequate this method may be, in the present 
state of psychological knowledge it must be 
worked to its utmost. Christian psychology 
must approach these vital phenomena on this 
side and by this method and so keep itself 
abreast of the very latest information in the re- 
motest way bearing upon such occurrences in 
the subconscious as issue in the conscious states 
of Christian experience. All the light that such 
psychological investigations can shed upon the 
phenomena in question should be gladly wel- 
comed and given its merited place in such an 
inquiry as this. All unwarranted inferences, 
alleged to be deducible from facts now known, 
must be exposed and eliminated from reputable 
thought on the problem. The method by infer- 
ence must be thus recognized and given oppor- 
tunity for all reliable deliverances. 

The other of these methods is the method by 
inspiration. By this method the assertions of 
Scripture relative to the phenom- 
(a) By inspiration, ena in question are given a hear- 
ing and their right to credence 
examined with thoroughness and candour. In 
so far as Scriptural revelation undertakes to de- 
lineate the occurrences underlying the conscious 
states of Christian experience its study becomes 
one of the methods by which the phenomena we 
are now seeking to exploit may be approached. 



224 A STUDY IN OEIGINS 

Scripture in its depiction of the experiences of 
the soul in the processes of salvation makes no 
distinction between those occurring in conscious- 
ness and those beneath consciousness. It fol- 
lows as it would seem the continuity of the 
states comprising Christian experience as they 
appear under the light of inspired perception. 
Its delineation is totally oblivious of the fact 
that some of these states stand out clearly in 
conscious experience, while others, of which it 
speaks with equal positiveness, are entirely 
wanting in consciousness save only as their 
presence is indicated by inference. To inspira- 
tion the whole process of experimental states 
thus appears in its completeness unmodified by 
the limitations of human consciousness. It is 
this very handling, in the Scriptures, of the 
states of Christian experience from the stand- 
point of inspired vision that gives rise to con- 
fusion in the thought of the undiscriminating. 
The superficial thinker looks for all states to be 
equally in consciousness because equally defined 
in Scripture. This Scriptural uncovering of the 
underlying, subconscious phenomena of Chris- 
tian experience brings within reach a very 
fruitful method of the study of the phenomena 
in question. 

If the survey of the situation so far as we have 
gone has been correct, what has been accom- 



THE PHENOMENA IN QUESTION 225 

plished should be briefly recapitulated as a prep- 
aration for the critical stage of the inquiry upon 
which we shall enter in the chap- 
Review of course te immediately following. We 

Thus Far. •/ O 

have traced the consecutive states 
of Christian experience in unbroken succession 
through the conscious and subconscious areas of 
the psychical field ; we have thus been able to 
locate in its respective region every one of these 
states ; we have found that the origins of this 
entire movement, whatever they are, are resident 
in the subconscious area ; we have seen that 
while we can never hope to penetrate to the 
depths of the subconscious with actual observa- 
tion there are two methods of approach, in the 
study of these obscure phenomena, by which 
very positive presumptive conclusions may be 
reached. 

What we now purpose is to take up separately 
these two methods of approach to this inner 

sanctuary of the Christian soul, 
f,Tp" Fur " this holy of holies of gospel sal- 

vation, and rigorously examine 
their processes, their limitations and their credi- 
bility. Upon the mature and final conclusions 
reached in this portion of Christian psychology, 
not merely in this present effort but in the final 
completed efforts of future students of these 
facts, will rest the survival of the Christianity 



226 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

we know as the religion of coming ages. The 
accuracy of this statement will appear as we 
proceed. The solemnity and magnitude of the 
undertaking, together with its difficulty, will 
grow upon every conscientious student of the 
phenomena in hand. The aim is to move cau- 
tiously, modestly but fearlessly to the consum- 
mation of our quest. So far as we can aid in its 
accomplishment, we purpose to have known the 
last fact that can be known concerning the pro- 
found phenomena under scrutiny. We desire 
to join in sounding out an appeal to the un- 
flinching intelligence of Christendom for untir- 
ing investigation of these deep-lying processes 
until, with ever-growing certainty, the divine 
Presence and action shall be disclosed in the 
underlying states of Christian experience. We 
gladly become one among the pioneers of rever- 
ent but relentless inquiry into the farthest pos- 
sible analysis of the obscure and basal phe- 
nomena of the Christian life. With uncovered 
head and prayerful spirit we turn to our un- 
sought but imperative task. 



Ill 



THE AVAILABILITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL IN- 

FERENCE 

We are now to inquire how far psychological 
inference is available as a means of the discovery 
of the origin of the subconscious 
^u^^"" phenomena involved in this dis- 
cussion. The process employed 
in such inference is certainly legitimate. So 
long as inference remains within the confines of 
facts warranting its conclusions, it has much to 
contribute to this study. But when such infer- 
ence begins to mingle with itself positive con- 
jecture and prejudiced assumption a halt should 
be called in so misleading a procedure. We are, 
therefore, under the necessity of ascertaining ex- 
actly in what items and to what measure psy- 
chological inference is available for our purposes. 
In the study of the phenomena before us, 
there are certain psychological inferences the 
accuracy of which no well-in- 
^feren A ces missible formed student, whatever his re- 
ligious attitude, can reasonably 
question. To the consideration of these we will 
first give ourselves taking them up in detail. 

227 



228 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

Every student of the phenomena of Christian 

experience is forced, by the conditions appearing 

in consciousness, to the inference 

(i) Forces at Work . , 

in subconscious that there are definite and power- 
ful forces at work in the subcon- 
scious area. The postulation of the presence of 
these forces, from the point of view of the psy- 
chologist, is purely inferential. He sees effects 
in consciousness the causes of which are not ap- 
parent. In scientific consistency he must, at 
least inferentially, locate such causes. The 
only region open to such location is that of the 
subconscious, lying as it does outside the region 
of consciousness yet within the psychical field. 
For instance, no candid student of the phe- 
nomena of conviction for sin can escape the 
conclusion that beneath the surface of the con- 
scious occurrences in that state there are positive 
awakening energies in unwonted action. This 
is an inference generally so nebulously in 
thought that it has been only vaguely formu- 
lated. Nevertheless when fairly stated its ad- 
mission will not be seriously questioned. The 
plain uncoloured facts warrant the inference. 
This instance is but one of frequent situations 
in Christian consciousness forcing upon us the 
inference that beneath such conditions there 
are potent forces at work in the subconscious 
area. 



PSYCHOLOGICAL INFERENCE 229 

Another of these generally admitted inferences 

is that these forces, acting in the subconscious, 

operate under fixed laws. The 

( 2 ) They operate uniformity of the resultant condi- 

Under Fixed Laws. *> 

tions in consciousness, of which 
we infer that these forces are the direct causes, 
are such that their causes can only act in un- 
varying processes. For instance, the psychic 
conditions issuing in conversion are rigorous 
and exact. A failure to conform to them, even 
to the minutest requirement, it matters not how 
strenuous the non-conforming effort, leaves con- 
sciousness totally void of all of the conditions 
characteristic of conversion. Nothing brings re- 
sults but conformity to the unmodified require- 
ments imposed. But the instant conscious 
states meet every minutia of the psychical de- 
mand, the resultant state in consciousness 
springs immediately into its place. No more 
exact evidences of law appear anywhere than in 
relation to these evident activities in the sub- 
conscious area. No one can study these phe- 
nomena of Christian experience, from the stand- 
point of psychology, and not be increasingly 
impressed with the inexorable exactitude of the 
subconscious processes underlying its consequent 
conscious states. 

A third of these inferences, which will be 
readily conceded, is that these subconscious 



230 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

forces manifest every attribute of intelligence in 
their action. The interchange between the con- 
scious and the subconscious in 
^nfouanties 11 * 61 "" Christian experience has every ap- 
pearance of an exchange of com- 
munications between coordinate intelligences. 
On whatever hypothesis this interchange is ac- 
counted for the fact of intelligence apparent in the 
psychical transaction is indisputable. The inter- 
change is petition and answer ; it is condition and 
fulfillment ; it is the price paid and the purchase 
received; it is offer and acceptance. No more 
intelligent transaction could occur between con- 
tracting personalities than is consummated in 
this action of the subconscious forces. The ap- 
pearance of mechanism in the process is com- 
pletely absent. The movement is so spontane- 
ous and full of the appearance of volitional in- 
telligence that consciousness is totally oblivious 
of anything in the remotest degree mechanical 
in its action. So pronounced is this element of 
intelligence in the process that the unanalytic 
consciousness of the ordinary Christian can with 
difficulty be persuaded that he has no perception 
of intelligent personality, other than his own, in 
the entire transaction. Indeed the person ex- 
periencing it can only after long violence to 
most persistent conviction drive himself to the 
conclusion that he is not in direct conscious con- 



PSYCHOLOGICAL INFERENCE 231 

tact with intelligent individuality, so indispu- 
tably present is every attribute of intelligence in 
the responsive action of these subconscious forces. 
Their possession of intelligent qualities is, there- 
fore, a warranted inference in the study of their 
nature and origin, though as to in what essence 
those qualities inhere there may still be an open 
question. 

The exercise of psychological inference here 

finds itself facing the problem that lies at the 

core of this study of origins and 

ce e r s a e WeInferences blocks tn e way of further valid in- 
• ference. That problem takes this 
form : What is the source of this intelligent 
action in the subconscious area : (1) Is it 
merely the unconscious cerebration of the in- 
telligent personality himself, under fixed re- 
active psychic laws? or (2) Is it external in- 
telligence acting on the subconscious conditions 
of the psychical field and maintaining an in- 
variable uniformity of procedure in that action ? 
If psychological thought commits itself to an af- 
firmative answer to the first part of this ques- 
tion, then its further inferences, by which 
it arrives at such an answer, cease to be 
available for purposes of this investigation for 
such inferences are at once presumptive and 
misleading as we shall see. In the attempt to 
get at the origins of Christian experience, on the 



232 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

hypothesis just stated, inferences unwarranted, 
undemonstrable and deceptive, yet vital to the 
position taken, have been formulated, which 
must here be examined and our characteriza- 
tion of them vindicated. Only thus can their 
availability as inferences, for the purposes of 
this study, be set aside. " Psychology and relig- 
ion are thus in perfect harmony up to this 
point, since both admit that there are forces 
seemingly outside of the conscious individual 
that bring redemption to the life. Nevertheless 
psychology, defining these forces as ' subcon- 
scious,' and speaking of their effects as due to 
' incubation/ or ' cerebration/ implies that they 
do not transcend the individual's personality ; 
and herein she diverges from Christian theology 
which insists that they are direct supernatural 
operations of the Deity." x The grouping of the 
unavailable inferences, characterized above and 
responsible for much divergence between Chris- 
tian and psychological thinking in not infre- 
quent instances, will under four heads be suffi- 
ciently representative and exhaustive. 

It is inferred and alleged that these subcon- 
scious phenomena are produced by the mere 
cerebral enlargements of the adolescent period. 
The growth of brain-matter and the ascent of 
cell-function are in very active process during 

1 James, " Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 211. 



PSYCHOLOGICAL INFERENCE 233 

adolescence. With the development of these en- 
larging nerve areas psychical acquirements 
Four Erroneous make rapid strides. Brain-cells 

Inferences: (i) Out- i i , ■ • 

come of Adolescent break out into new perceptions, 
change. expanding visions, ascending as- 

pirations, high resolutions and hitherto un- 
known emotions. The potencies of the unfold- 
ing being are enlarging. The impulses, appe- 
tencies and capacities of puberty are dawning, 
like a revelation, upon the maturing personality. 
That the moral nature, the religious capacities, 
should share in this awakening is but normal. 
That the marked time of spiritual uplift and 
transformation should fall within the adolescent 
period is an inevitable sequence. The world has 
not waited for modern psychological science to 
find out that the period of peculiar susceptibility 
to the experimental phenomena of the spiritual 
life is that of the adolescent years. It was an- 
nounced in comprehensive terms thirty cen- 
turies ago : " Remember now thy Creator in the 
days of thy youth, while the evil days come 
not." * But to class these subconscious phe- 
nomena as essentially adolescent because they 
largely occur in the period of adolescence is an 
induction evidently unfair to the facts. To 
allege that these phenomena are necessarily pro- 
duced by the structural changes inevitable in 

1 Eccl. xii. 1. 



234 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

the stage of growth occurring in adolescence is 
a most presumptuous conclusion. To infer that 
because, in the great majority of instances, these 
phenomena actually occur amid the changes of 
adolescence therefore they are produced by, or 
are an inherent part of, those changes is exceed- 
ingly erroneous and misleading. 

The fact is that many of the most positive ap- 
pearances of these phenomena occur remote from 
. adolescence, in psychical structures 

This Inference -i 

ciearly un- full-grown and mature, where 

warranted. -i /» -i i t t i 

every phase ol adolescent develop- 
ment has been left far behind. Indeed, these 
phenomena are found to have occurred at any 
psychical stage, adolescent or mature, whenever 
the psychical states provided the conditions es- 
sential to their existence. To say that they, oc- 
curring when normal adolescence has long since 
passed, are merely belated adolescent phenomena 
is to indulge in purest assumption. These phe- 
nomena are not inherent in the adolescent pe- 
riod. Many an adolescence pushes through its 
entire range without the manifestation of the 
slightest similitude to these experiences. Among 
multitudes, brought up in Christian homes and 
under the faithful care of Christian nurture, no 
such experiences as conviction and conversion 
are ever met. Among still other multitudes, 
brought up entirely apart from all Christian in- 



PSYCHOLOGICAL INFERENCE 235 

fluences, no such phenomena ever appear. Only 
in lives where positive sin has had a place do or 
can these phenomena arise either in adolescence 
or at any other period. All of these facts, de- 
monstrable by innumerable testimonies, go to 
show that the inference that these phenomena 
are in nature part and parcel of mere adolescent 
change is clearly erroneous. All that the facts, 
offered in proof of this inference, can possibly 
warrant is the conclusion that these experiences 
occur most frequently in the period of adoles- 
cence and that that period is most susceptible to 
their occurrence. The effort to stigmatize these 
experiences as mere adolescent phenomena, the 
ebullition of adolescent ferment, is a signal fail- 
ure. They are without question phenomena as 
much in place at any and every stage and in 
any and every quality of psychical life. They 
are among the most positive, substantial and 
reputable phenomena of the psychic being. 

It is inferred and alleged that exactly parallel 
phenomena, entirely non-religious, demonstrate 
, , % _ ., . _. the merely reactive nature of the 

(a) Parallel Phe- •/ 

nomena Prove psychical processes involved in 

These Reactive. x ^ A 

these subconscious phenomena of 
Christian experience. " Conversion is not unlike 
the experiences of every-day life." * " In every- 
day life we find mental experiences analogous to 

1 Cutten, "The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity," p. 248. 



236 A STUDY IN OKIGINS 

each factor of the conversion experience, and 
sometimes to the whole process." x " In psychic 
troubles depression precedes all exaltation, and 
this newness (in conversion) evidently arises as 
a reaction from the previous depressed state 
which we have called sense of sin." 2 Hall in 
defining a law of mental life gives expression to 
this inference when he asserts that law to be 
" The deep tendency of our nature to react from 
pain to joy, which is the moment of conversion, 
and all the more intense by contrast and resili- 
ence." 3 Starbuck, illustrating his position by 
instances of reaction from depression to joy, of 
sudden mental awakenings, and of the breaking 
of habits, declares : " These facts do make intel- 
ligible, however, the processes involved in con- 
version in the same way that any natural phe- 
nomena come to be understood. They help us 
to see a little way into the mental operations 
concerned in conversion. They also make it 
clear that, however inexplicable, the facts of con- 
version are manifestations of natural processes. 
We accept them as natural laws, because we see 
them working here and there and everywhere 
in the psychic life." 4 It is without question 

1 Cutten. " The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity,' ' p. 247. 

a Ibid., p. 248. 

3 Hall, "Adolescence," Vol. II, p. 313. 

4 Starbuok, "The Psychology of Religion," p. 143. 



PSYCHOLOGICAL INFERENCE 237 

that changes, transitions, reformations, involv- 
ing conscious and subconscious states, in which 
are drawn even radical and sudden dividing 
lines, do occur. Evidently reactive processes in 
the subconscious region do present remarkable 
psychical modifications. Awakenings, revul- 
sions, uplifts of mere intellectual nature present 
exceedingly interesting processes to the candid 
student of psychical changes. There is a large 
range of these occurrences in the mental life 
that form an important part of the field of psy- 
chological research. Here lie the arousal, the 
awakening and the formulation of aspiration 
and ambition, a recondite and fruitful field of 
inquiry. These, however, have no share of our 
concern in this study ; they are in no true sense 
parallel phenomena. 

It should be borne in mind that exact simili- 
tudes in such profound occurrences are difficult 
of detection. Similarities are ready 
Facts Discredit creatures of fancy. It is just here 

this Inference. ■» *> 

very easy to stumble into far- 
reaching errors of conclusion. Absolute identi- 
fication of these subtle processes is necessary to 
protect from calamitous fault in opinion and 
teaching. The fact is that the alleged parallel- 
ism between the phenomena we are considering 
and any other psychical occurrences known to 
man is a pure assumption. " It seems to me 



238 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

that few conceptions are less instructive than this 
reinterpretation of religion as perverted sexual- 
ity." * " The difference should be emphasized 
— religious conversion in contradistinction from 
other experiences comprehends the whole mental 
life." 2 If by the statement that " The conclu- 
sion is that the mechanism of striking religious 
transformations is the same as the mechanism of 
our automatic mental processes " 3 it is meant, 
which is evidently not the case, that the brain 
structure is the material medium of all psychical 
activities then the declaration may be readily 
accepted as true ; if, on the contrary, it is meant, 
which is evidently the case, that " striking re- 
ligious transformations," in the psychical opera- 
tions they require to explain them, are identical 
with all ordinary " automatic mental processes," 
then the statement is to be emphatically rejected 
as inadequate to satisfy the facts. 

It is demonstrable that the phenomena we 

are considering form a class by themselves. 

Their antecedents in psychical 

These Phenomena * u 

a class by Them- states are utterly inadequate to 
explain their occurrence. The 
peculiarities of their nature and the power ac- 
companying their presence permit no comparison 

1 James, "Varieties of Religions Experience," p. 11. 

*lMd.," p. 247. 

3 Coe, "The Spiritual Life," p. 128. 



PSYCHOLOGICAL INFERENCE 239 

with any other having the least fancied simi- 
larity to them. The grapple of will in the sub- 
jugation of habit in moral reform bears not tho 
remotest likeness to the immediate and complete 
elimination of the very presence of the habit by 
a somewhat beyond the will. Fluctuations in 
emotional conditions because of fortuitous com- 
binations or conjunctions of subconscious cur- 
rents of psychical action have no resemblance 
to the reliable spiritual peace arising from the 
profound subconscious harmonization evidently 
occurring in these phenomena. The sporadic 
and spasmodic gush of strength arising from 
some brief arousal of impulse is not for a moment 
to be compared with the sustained power at- 
tendant upon the presence of these phenomena 
in the subconscious Christian life, a power alone 
making possible high Christian character and 
abiding Christian civilization. The cumulative 
series of these phenomena, persisting to homo- 
geneous and climactic states without any known 
limitations, place them far without any other 
class of phenomena yet discovered in the entire 
sweep of the psychical world. Any conclusions 
formed concerning the origin and nature of any 
other phenomena do not apply to these. An 
attempt to force such conclusions into service 
here is misleading and presumptive. If these 
phenomena have any explanation it must be 



240 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

one accounting for their incomparable and dis- 
tinctive features. No theory transplanted from 
other and irrelevant situations can fit the case. 
These phenomena have no real parallels ; there- 
fore they have no explanation, ready-made 
from apparently like phenomena, adequate to 
account for their unique nature. This inference, 
in the presence of the facts, is thus seen to be 
the sheerest assumption and sinks into utter 
inadequacy. 

It is inferred and alleged that, as tempera- 
mental incapacities prove that a deficient struc- 
ture defeats the process, these phe- 

(3) Incapacity x ' x 

proves these phe- nomena are purely structural in 

nomena Structural. , . . ^ T , . , , 

their origin. JNo unbiased student 
of the psychical life will for an instant dispute 
that psychical phenomena are varied in wide 
degree by brain structure. Mental faculties 
differ, no doubt, in just the ratio of the vari- 
ance in brain matter and its structural combi- 
nations. A psychical process which is very 
easy for one is very difficult, even impossible, 
for another. Defective structures, without ques- 
tion, measurably limit their capacities. But 
within certain, definite degrees the seeming 
fixedness of such limitations cannot be admitted 
to be insurmountable. One of the most eminent 
of brain and nerve specialists has announced a 
most suggestive and startling possibility as the 



PSYCHOLOGICAL INFERENCE 241 

ripest conclusion of biological science in the 
matter of volitional modification of brain struc- 
ture. " We can make our brains, so far as 
special functions or aptitudes are concerned, if 
only we have wills strong enough to take the 
trouble." 1 Even structure, therefore, within 
limits is not a fixed and unalterable quantity. 
Tabulated percentages of ineffective seeking 
alleged as instances of incapacity are very in- 
conclusive to discriminating thought. Before 
any admissible deductions can be formed the 
instances must be shown to be cases of positive 
and hopeless incapacity and not of spiritual 
ignorance or volitional indolence. Many of the 
alleged incapacities are found, upon careful in- 
vestigation, to be resolvable into deficiency of 
information or insufficiency of endeavour. The 
unsuccessful seeker after definite Christian ex- 
perience may easily be classified as incapacitated 
when either of the last mentioned conditions is 
the real cause of the failure. 

Ignorance of the right psychical pathway in 

Christian experience many times misleads and 

renders such seeking ineffective. 

?eryRare nCaPaCity 0ftei1 aftei> Y^™ Of grOpillg ill 

spiritual darkness, a few moments 
of wise instruction by one expert in the psychical 
processes involved, lead out into the brightness 

Thompson : " Brain and Personality," p. 217. 



242 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

of the long-sought experience. In less skillful 
hands the obstacle would have been pronounced 
a prohibitive incapacity. As often, perhaps, 
when the conditions of experience are clearly 
understood, defect in conformity to them, slight 
it may be yet vital, makes absolutely and per- 
manently abortive the whole process. The only 
thing that is needed to make the effort effective 
is scrupulous and persistent resolution to leave 
no part of the action incomplete, or indifferently 
done. Indiscriminate observation glibly pro- 
nounces the difficulty to be structural incapacity. 
It is safe to affirm that under well-informed and 
skillful handling, with resolute and tenacious 
purpose, the element of incapacity in the situ- 
ation is reduced to an inappreciable feature. 

Except in cases of positive imbecility, it may 
be seriously questioned whether structural inca- 
pacity need ever be allowed as an 

Incapacity War- . , ™, . . 

rants no such impediment to such a Christian 

experience as is adequate to the 
spiritual needs of the individual, clear and satis- 
factory in its quality though perhaps not spec- 
tacular in its states. Yet, waiving such an ex- 
clusive position as that and admitting that in- 
telligent instances seem to indicate a structural 
incapacity to participate in the distinctive states 
constituting Christian experience, the inference 
from such a fact that the processes involved in 



PSYCHOLOGICAL INFERENCE 243 

such experiences are, therefore, merely struc- 
tural in their origin is wholly unwarranted. 
Even superhuman causes, if there are such, 
must work through the structural conditions as 
they exist in the psychical nature. Christian 
experience involves no recasting of the native 
structure of the brain as the organ of the per- 
sonality. If there be sufficient defect in that 
structure the effective action of any cause, hu- 
man or divine, except it be creative, may be 
completely inhibited thereby. Genuine struc- 
tural incapacity simply puts its possessor with- 
out the class of accountable beings for whom the 
Gospel, with its attendant experiences, is pro- 
vided. Incapacity, therefore, has no evidential 
quality whatever in regard to the origin of the 
subconscious states of Christian experience. 
Such incapacity, when it does exist, merely in- 
dicates that the individual suffering it is in- 
capable, for reason of deficiencies in brain struc- 
ture, of being acted upon by the causes produc- 
tive of the subconscious states in such expe- 
rience. Any inference as to the nature of those 
causes from the fact of such incapacity is, in the 
baldest sense, presumptive, unwarranted and 
misleading. 

It is inferred and alleged that the action of 
hypnotic suggestion meets every requirement 
for the explanation of these phenomena. The 



244 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

profound nature of mental suggestion is an in- 
disputable fact of recent psychological research. 
It has been lifted out of the cate- 
( 4 ) origin in Hyp. ~ or y f men t a l jugglery, and 

notic Suggestion. ° J « °° J ' 

placed upon the exalted plane of 
reputable psychical phenomena. Hypnotic sug- 
gestion is a specific type of this suggestive action. 
There seems to be a peculiar susceptibility of the 
subconscious self, under hypnotic conditions, to 
take a suggestion made to it, to pass under the 
more or less complete domination of that sug- 
gestion and, for the time being, to supersede and 
suspend ordinary consciousness with its usual 
states. This susceptibility varies greatly with 
different individuals, some being much more 
open to such suggestion than others. This 
hypnotic suggestion is, however, a species apart 
and having certain definite qualities in its ac- 
tion which should here be carefully noted. It 
is preceded by hypnosis, an induced psychical 
condition, indispensable in order that appro- 
priate suggestion may take effect in the psy- 
chical process. Hypnotic action is temporary 
in its immediate results and duration. By con- 
tinuous repetition it may finally 
no^condftion 15 " become a habit just as any other 
mental habit may be acquired. 
The effect of its process is to suspend ordinary 
consciousness and make the individual, for the 



PSYCHOLOGICAL INFERENCE 245 

time of its continuance, oblivious to his normal 
proper environment. Professor Jastrow says, 
11 It is obvious that the hypnotic subject enters 
a peculiarly altered mental state upon the occa- 
sion of an outward suggestion," which in the 
same sentence he pronounces to be an " ab- 
normal psychological disposition " ; and a few 
lines later he declares that the distinctive 
trait of that disposition " is a disintegration or 
partitioning of consciousness, and with it a con- 
traction of the mental field." 1 " There is a 
limitation of awareness and of will ; there is a 
restricted scope of consciousness, a hampered ex- 
pression of initiative and resistance — the limita- 
tions of the two reducing the subject to the sem- 
blance of a remarkably intricate automaton." 2 
11 Though we cannot speak of a loss of conscious- 
ness (in hypnosis), we must, however, suppose an 
abnormal state of consciousness ; for if some one 
believes he sees things that are not present, or 
fails to see things that are present, he is cer- 
tainly in an abnormal state of consciousness." 3 

The whole effect of the unguarded repetition 
of hypnotic conditions is to weaken the voli- 
tional and mental energies. Its unquestionable 
tendency, in effect upon the subject, is towards 
psychical emasculation. " The consequences to 

1 Jastrow, " The Subconscious, " pp. 272-273. * Ibid., p. 274. 

3 Moll, "Hypnotism," p. 170. 



246 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

the intelligence in which such states habitually 

occur and multiply inevitably affect the entire 

integrity of consciousness. By 

Deplorable Results suc ] 1 development do dissociated 

of Hypnotic Action. - 1 - 

states pave the way to disinte- 
grated personality." : " Frequent submission to 
such foolish procedure (hypnosis for amusement 
or profit) may ultimate in imbecility. The 
hypnotic habit is easily contracted and is pa- 
thetically exhibited by professional subjects, in 
whom is engendered, through repeated experi- 
ments, the wont to moon and dream, and who 
yield in an instant to the dominant personality 
of an overbearing operator." An instance of 
such effect is cited : " The result of this was 
to induce in the subject an almost idiotic condi- 
tion ; she did not know whether she was in or 
out of the hypnotic state." 2 By a recognized 
authority the dangers of hypnotic suggestion 
are thus given : " The increased tendency to 
hypnosis, and heightened susceptibility to sug- 
gestion in the waking state, i. e., the possibility 
of a new hypnosis against the subject's will, 
perhaps without her suspecting it, and the dan- 
ger of her accepting external suggestion even 
without hypnosis." 3 Scientific study of the 

1 Jastrow, "The Subconsoious, " p. 322. 

2 Quackenbos, " Hypnotic Therapeutics," p. 110. 

8 Moll, " Hypnotism," p. 306. : 



PSYCHOLOGICAL INFERENCE 247 

hypnotic suggestive state has thus revealed its 
harmful and perilous effects. It is a phe- 
nomenon that, like poison, should only be 
evoked by persons specially qualified and then 
used with the utmost reserve and caution. " It 
is already evident that suggestion is an instru- 
ment of great and subtle power, and not one to 
be handled unwarily." l 

In all these remarkable qualities of hypnotic 
suggestion we find the evidences that the phe- 
nomena we are studying are not 

Inference Shown to foe pr0C l UC ts of SUCh SUggeStlOn. 
be Erroneous. * ^^ 

These subconscious states of Chris- 
tian experience are permanent in their duration. 
They are wrought for a lifetime. Their con- 
ditions once met, unless subsequently retracted, 
they appear never to disappear from the psychic 
field. In this respect they bear no resemblance 
whatever to the evanescent phenomena of hyp- 
notic suggestion. In these experiences there is 
no suspension of ordinary consciousness or its 
usual states. The personality remains in the 
regular walks and atmosphere of life. He is 
completely himself in relation to his entire en- 
vironment. He is oblivious of nothing in the 
usual course of life. Subconsciousness is not 
lifted into ascendancy. Sane consciousness is on 
the throne of the psychic realm. That con- 

1 Coe, " The Spiritual Life," p. 162. 



248 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

sciousness feels the transformations in its states, 
wrought by strange subconscious forces, but is 
never unseated. None of the weird, grotesque 
qualities of ascendant hypnotic suggestion ever 
appear in the genuine phases of properly-poised 
Christian experience. In this vital respect these 
phenomena have not the slightest resemblance 
to the uncanny qualities of such suggestion. In 
these substantial experiences of the Christian 
life every faculty and energy of the normal psy- 
chical being is energized and exalted. There is 
no perversion of the spiritual structure. There 
is no enervation of the volitional powers. There 
is no emasculation of the spiritual being. There 
is no danger of degeneracy under the most en- 
ergetic and continuous action of these phenom- 
ena. On the contrary, the entire effect is to give 
balance, vigour, moral purity and exaltation to 
all activities of the psychical being. Its product 
is the best and strongest manhood the world has 
ever seen. In this incomparable item these sub- 
conscious phenomena of Christian experience 
are entirely apart from, and diametrically oppo- 
site to, the phenomena of hypnotic suggestion. 
The inference that the phenomena of such sug- 
gestion offer any adequate explanation of the 
subconscious phenomena of Christian expe- 
rience is clearly refuted by the facts. Such in- 
ference is not only unwarranted, it is mislead- 



PSYCHOLOGICAL INFERENCE 249 

ing ; it partakes of the nature of calumny in its 
insinuations and reflections. It is little short of 
a libel on the sublime phenomena of Christian 
experience to impute to them such causal affil- 
iations. Such derivation for these phenomena 
can but be indignantly resented and disowned 
by every alert Christian psychologist. 

From such considerations as the foregoing it 
is evident that the availability of psychological 

inference in this discussion of the 
um"ted le Inference real origins of the subconscious 

phenomena in Christian expe- 
rience is very limited ; indeed, that it only 
serves to bring us face to face with the profound 
problem that constitutes the core of this entire 
subject. If we are to get any reliable light on 
the actual origin of these wonderful phenomena 
we must turn elsewhere than to any mere infer- 
ence that the most astute psychology may pre- 
sume to formulate. Is there any further light 
for the depths we seek to penetrate? For the 
Christian psychologist such light shines; we 
now proceed to avail ourselves of it. 



IV 

THE EELIABILITY OF SCEIPTUEE INSIGHT 

The voice that assumes to speak of ultra-con- 
scious occurrences must attest its credibility. 
No appeal to credulity will meet 
Demand for Evi- ^g neG ± No bold assertion, on 

dence Proper. » 

alleged authority, can command 
intelligent confidence. The bearer of light for 
these obscure depths must establish an assuring 
trustworthiness. If evidence of this nature can- 
not be forthcoming then the voice may as well 
not speak. Bald assumption of unquestionable 
reliability merits and receives the contempt of 
intelligent thought. 

The candid inquirer, baffled in his attempt to 
rely upon psychological inference, as we have 

seen him to be in the last chapter, 
stet^ r ° blem hears but one voice that proposes 

to throw any light into the depths 
of the subconscious and reveal the origin of the 
phenomena of Christian experience there aris- 
ing. That voice is the Word of God in Scrip- 
tural utterance. The reverent student of these 
phenomena must not shrink from the most un- 
sparing inquiry into the accuracy of Scriptural 

250 



RELIABILITY OF SCRIPTURE INSIGHT 

expositions of psychical states. The crucial 
question that must be answered in no evasive 
terms is this: Is Scriptural insight into psy- 
chical states such as inspires the candid mind 
with confidence and assurance of accuracy and 
reliability ? In aid of such inquiry the psychical 
insight of Scripture asks no concession of its 
reliability. It seeks no blind credence in its 
support. It steps out into the open and fear- 
lessly invites the challenge of its ability to 
penetrate to the depths of the psychical struc- 
ture, to interpret the processes of Christian ex- 
perience that are operative in the underlying 
depths. To put its attitude in an- 

open^TMt 18111 otner > an d perhaps more accept- 
able, way, it may be said that 
Scriptural insight is totally innocent of any at- 
tempt to demonstrate its reliability ; it simply 
sets forth the facts of psychical occurrences so 
absolutely positive of its own accuracy that it is 
entirely oblivious of any possibility of its utter- 
ances ever being called into question. It thus 
leaves itself open to the most critical investiga- 
tion of its trustworthiness as a revealer of the 
profound causal conditions that underlie the 
states of Christian experience. We are, there- 
fore, to examine in this chapter the credentials, 
so to speak, of Scripture insight as a reliable in- 
terpreter of the experimental occurrences of the 



252 STUDY IN ORIGINS 

Christian life taking place in the psychical area 
beyond consciousness. The purpose is to give 
reasonable evidence that Scripture may be relied 
upon to accurately set forth the conditions and 
events of the subconscious area in the processes 
of Christian experience. This evidence consists 
of positive verifications of such ability in actual 
operation so far as consciousness can follow it. 
These are the only credentials that can meet the 
demands of this inquiry. They are of such 
decided importance that they must severally be 
given our consideration in detail. 

The real nature and result of sin in the psy- 
chical life is exclusively revealed by the insight 

Four credentials of Scripture. What sin actually is 
stated : (i) The and w k at j t ac tually does in the 

Diagnosis of Psy- «f 

chicai Disorder. psychical states is nowhere else 
described. References to any conception of sin 
in all non-Christian literature are in the most 
general and undefined terms. The vagueness of 
the terminology simply reflects the hazy indis- 
tinctness of the concept itself. Only under the 
insight of Scripture, piercing like the rays of a 
superhuman search-light into the depths of the 
soul, have the naked essence and distinct con- 
sequences of sin, as they appear in psychical 
conditions, found definite and exhaustive ex- 
position. It is a bold thing, a thing of ever- 
increasing wonder, to have stepped into the 



RELIABILITY OF SCRIPTURE INSIGHT 253 

very centre of the soul's most abstruse conscious 
activities, when such a thing as psychological 
science was undreamed of, and given such an 
exhibit of the distinct psychical processes in- 
volved in the act of sin as stands undisputed, in 
all essential elements, under the vastly extended 
knowledge of subsequent psychological dis- 
covery. Such is the unapproached achievement 
of Scripture insight. Nearly two thousand 
years ago it gave the most exact and luminous 
delineations of sin, in its psychical aspects, pos- 
sible to be made. In one keen sentence that in- 
sight opened a view into the very essence of sin 
when it declared : " Sin is the transgression of 
the law." * We see, as in a flash, that sin is the 
volitional variance of the psychical attitude 
from exact conformity to the known require- 
ments of God's law. This definition is amplified 
and the evolution of sin in psy- 
ThePsychicai c hi ca l states is still more fully 

Evolution of Sin, J 

shown : " Every man is tempted, 
when he is drawn away of his own lust, and 
enticed." 2 Thus is sketched the rise of im- 
proper desire, its clash with known law, its 
potent pull upon the volitional being and the 
resultant discernible inclination of that being 
away from absolute rectitude. The psychical 
scene is not left in fragmentary incompleteness ; 

1 1 John iii. 4, ' James i. 14. 



254 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

the insight of Scripture proceeds to delineate the 
subsequent stages in the genesis of sin : " Then 
when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth 
sin." x The fructifying of unholy desire is thus 
portrayed. Such desire, once having been given 
place, takes on more and more distinct form and 
increases in strength, like the growth of em- 
bryonic fcetal life, until it culminates in kindred 
volitional action and sin is born. The law is 
broken ; God is disobeyed and the psychical being 
is a deliberate outlaw in the spiritual universe. 
But the portrayal of the psychical processes of 
sin does not stop here. It now sets forth, with 
unequivocal positiveness, the effect 
Disastrous Effects f sucn s [ n upon the psychical 

structure and life : " And sin, 
when it is finished, bringeth forth death." 2 
The scene thus opened, amplified in great detail 
in like disclosures of Scripture insight, uncovers 
the destructive and ultimately fatal processes 
that the presence of sin sets up in the psychical 
being. It renders the soul unfit for fellowship 
with God and separates it from Him : " Your 
iniquities have separated between you and your 
God, and your sins have hid His face from you 
that He will not hear." 3 This insight affirms 
the sinning soul to be " without God in the 
world," 4 and " alienated from the life of 

1 James i. 15. 2 James i. 15. 8 Isa. lix. 2. 4 Epb. ii. 12. 



RELIABILITY OF SCRIPTURE INSIGHT 255 

God." 1 This alienation from the life of God is, in 
its functional and structural effects, seen to be the 
cause of the spiritual condition depicted by the 
words : " Dead in trespasses and sins." 2 The 

revolt of the psychical structure 
sp^uTDiforder. against this death-dealing process 

is vividly portrayed by this Scrip- 
tural insight : " The wicked are like the 
troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters 
cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith 
my God, to the wicked." 3 The endless tossing 
outreach of the soul after the life of God, from 
which it is alienated by sin, is thus laid bare to 
our gaze and to it the agonies of the centuries 
give overwhelming witness. Scripture insight 
has given such indisputable diagnosis of the 
psychical disorder that has blighted our race 
ever since sin began its fatal processes in the 
hearts of men. What inerrant vision is this 
that provided us with such a luminous analysis 
of these profound occurrences transpiring in the 
depths of consciousness ! 

If the diagnosis of the spiritual conditions 
produced by sin in the consciousness of the soul, 

thus given by Scriptural insight, 

forl h e !iff rescripti ° n is faultless in its accuracy, under 
the increasing psychological intel- 
ligence of men, no less so is the prescription for 

< Eph. iv. 18. 2 Eph. ii. 1. 3 Isa. lvii. 20. 



256 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

the relief of that condition delineated by that 
same insight. The detailed statement of the 
psychical steps to be taken by the conscious per- 
sonality is perspicuous and positive. There has 
been no variation in the essence of these steps in 
all the long stretch of ages during which this in- 
sight has been placing this prescription before 
the human soul for its relief. The medium of 
its expression has had scores of variations ; its 
repetitions have been separated by centuries and 
the stretch of deserts and seas ; its elaborations 
have been amid the crudities of pastoral sim- 
plicity and the refinements of cosmopolitan cul- 
ture. But the prescription itself has never 
varied. Scripture insight has never been di- 
verted from absolute uniformity by the lapse of 
time or the changes in place. 

This prescription provides for three distinct vo- 
litional acts. They embody all that the soul can 
do towards its rescue from sin. They 
Three steps ^\ lie within the range of ready 

Prescribed. ° ■» 

possibility to every normal person. 
Their expression in Scripture is multitudinous, 
scattered from end to end of the Word of God. 
It would be needless repetition to give here, and 
in the remaining parts of this chapter, numerous 
citations of Scripture passages. In the treat- 
ment of the states of Christian experience, as 
given in Part I, Chapter III, sufficiently copious 



RELIABILITY OF SCRIPTURE INSIGHT 257 

citations of Scripture may be found to confirm 
the accuracy of the statements here made rela- 
tive to the states there more elaborately defined. 
Only in very limited measure, therefore, will 
additional and supplemental citations here be 
made. The Scripture passages presented in this 
chapter, together with those just referred to, will 
adequately cover the need of Scripture corrobo- 
ration of the positions taken, which find their 
better substantiation in the unquestionable gen- 
eral concensus of Scripture as a whole rather than 
in isolated passages. 

The first of these acts is the volitional separa- 
tion of the life from sin in all of its forms 
hitherto indulged in and the de- 
Abandonment terminate covenant to leave them 

of Sin. 

alone forever. It is the choice of 
complete cessation of all former variations of the 
psychical attitude from conformity to the known 
will of God. This act is concisely stated as one 
of the conditions of relief in the words : " Let the 
wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man 
his thoughts." l The specific psychic action here 
defined is evidently that of positive volitional 
separation from every form of known evil in the 
inner and outer life. Perhaps Scripture no- 
where more forcefully enjoins this act than in 
the words : " Be ye separate, saith the Lord, and 

1 Isa. lv. 7. 



258 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

touch not the unclean thing ; and I will receive 
you." 1 The absolute volitional severance of the 
psychical being from all sinful contacts is thus 
clearly seen to be one of the essentials in this 
prescription. 

The second of these steps in the prescription 

is the seeming complement of the first. On first 

thought, it would appear that if 

committal to gin ig to be abandoned then the 

Obedience. 

divine will is to be scrupulously 
obeyed. But the separation from all former sin, 
which is all that this act of abandonment in- 
volves, does not necessarily carry with it the 
positive commitment to conformity to every 
known requirement of the divine will. The 
prescription adds as a second act necessary to 
relief a solemn covenant of obedience. In every 
possible circumstance the soul must be com- 
mitted to a volitional attitude of resistance to 
sin and compliance with every known injunc- 
tion of God. The unqualified intent of the soul 
must be to act, in the minutest exertion of vo- 
litional conduct, in the utmost possible con- 
formity to the law of God. The negative atti- 
tude of rejection of sin and the positive attitude 
of committal to obedience are unalterably linked 
together in this prescription. 

In that spectacular setting of this prescription 

*2 Cor. vi. 17. 



RELIABILITY OF SCRIPTURE INSIGHT 250 

for relief, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Chri.-t 
embodies this committal to obedience in the 
graphic words of the returning prodigal : " Make 
me as one of thy hired servants." x It is the 
soul's surrender to the most humble, even ab- 
ject, conformity to the divine will in every act. 
In that remarkable instance of the living appli- 
cation of this prescription, the conversion of 
Paul, he meets this requirement in the excla- 
mation : " What wilt Thou have me to do? " 2 
The exactitude of this required condition is 
formulated with great detail in those compre- 
hensive words : u Casting down imaginations, 
and every high thing that exalteth itself against 
the knowledge of God, and bringing into cap- 
tivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 3 
The deliberate committal of the volitional being 
to the known will of God is thus made an essen- 
tial part of the prescription for relief from sin as 
made known by Scriptural insight. 

The third and final step in this prescription is 
the volitional act of acceptance. In essence this 
act of receptiveness is the act of 
Act of Acceptance, faith. It is the reliance of the 
soul upon the fulfillment of the 
promise of that in relief which it cannot do for 
itself. It is the voluntary opening of the gate- 
ways. It is the absolute cessation of self- 

1 Luke xv. 9. a Acte ix. 6. 8 2 Cor. x. 6. 



260 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

reliance and complete spiritual dependence for 
relief. It is the putting of the psychical being 
where relief can be administered unhindered 
and is the culmination of this prescription. In 
a vivid disclosure of the states of a seeking soul 
which realized that it was at the limit of its own 
effort for relief from sin and could not cleanse 
itself, this throwing of itself open by faith for the 
saving work of God finds striking expression in 
the cry : " Wash me and I shall be whiter than 
snow." 1 This final step in the effort for relief 
is concisely stated : " By grace are ye saved 
through faith." 2 Relief from the presence and 
power of sin through the exercise of faith is a 
psychical process such as the unenlightened 
mind of man has never conceived. In the pro- 
foundest introspection of his own conscious 
depths man has never dreamed of this simple 
act. 

Besides the prescription of distinct psychical 
acts for relief from sin, Scriptural insight pro- 
, ^ ru ^ « •*• ceeds farther to define the exact 

(3) The Definition 

of Processes in working in consciousness of this 
prescription when applied. The 
psychical scene thus spread before the ever- 
growing intelligence of men is a daring one. It 
is the most hazardous feat ever attempted in the 
history of religious thought. If it prove false 

1 Psa. li. 7. 2 Eph. ii. 8. 



RELIABILITY OF SCRIPTURE INSIGHT 2G1 

to experience the whole plan of gospel salvation 
falls in utter collapse. But this insight is per- 
fectly oblivious of any such peril. What it per- 
ceives and reveals is known to be so unquestion- 
able, so unerring is the vision, that no element 
of uncertainty ever appears in the action of this 
insight. It proceeds in its illuminating work 
confidently at home among these profound and 
evasive phenomena. It defines the occurrences 
in consciousness under the application of this 
prescription, indicating the general stages in the 
processes which comprehend all the essential 
conscious facts. 

The first of these stages is the distinct passing 
out of sin from the area of consciousness. Its 

guilt disappears. Condemnation, 
The Passing of sin. before oppressive, is completely 

removed ; its darkness and depres- 
sion pass away. The burden of sin is lifted or 
falls away, and exhilarant buoyancy takes its 
place. The complete extinguishment of the 
sense of present sin and the pervasion of the 
entire consciousness by a sense of rest and peace 
is a most distinct and radical revolution in psy- 
chical states. Sins are " blotted out," l as by 
total cancelation ; they are " removed" " as far 
as the east is from the west," 2 as by omnipotent 
expulsion ; they are " cleansed " 3 away, as by an 

1 Isa. xliv. 22. 2 Psa. ciii. 2. 3 1 John i. 9. 



262 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

efficacious spiritual flushing of the conscious 
field. 

After this passing of sin another stage is dis- 
closed by Scriptural insight ; it is the readjust- 
ment of spiritual structure. There 

o T f h Pow e a rf sting is a new alignment of the psychical 
impulses and powers owing to a 
reconstruction of the spiritual organism. There 
are strange subsidences and uplifts in the con- 
scious area of the psychical field. Tastes and 
affections and impulses are reversed, purified, 
refined, uplifted. So radical is this reconstruc- 
tion that the conscious being seems to itself " a 
new creature ; " 1 it seems to have passed through 
the mysterious transformations of a being " born 
again." 2 Scripture insight laid bare this 
wonderful reconstructive process in the con- 
scious being as another of the consequences of 
the applied prescription in relief of sin. 

As the final stage in this relief Scriptural in- 
sight portrays the influx of a new and ascendant 
life. Sin removed and structure 

The Ascendancy of recrea t e d, consciousness now be- 
New Life. ' 

comes sensible of the possession of 
a strange increment of vital energy. Powers, 
weak and vacillating before, are now vigorous 
and steady. Forces, dominant and dictatorial 
before, are subdued and docile. There is a glad- 

1 2 Cor. v. 17. 2 John iii. 3. 



RELIABILITY OK SCRIPTURE ENSIGHT 

some thrilling and Barging as of new and tran- 
eoendant life through the entire Btructun 
Christ declared that He came to provide suob life 
ever " more abundantly." ! This life of power 

ever makes receiving souls M more than con- 
querors." 2 Former impulses for good that have 
struggled under desperate handicap now spring 
into the forefront of conscious exertion and rise 
into transcendant mastery as by some all-con- 
quering infusion of surcharged life. Kagern* 
zeal, ardour, unction in sinless living, all are 
conscious indices that somehow there has come 
into the being a marvellous fullness of holy 
ascendant life. With the depiction of this all- 
filling life the definition of the processes of re- 
lief from sin, as portrayed by Scriptural insight, 
reaches its culmination. 

Intermingling among these remarkable feats 

of Scriptural perception there is one other that 

must be urged as a valid credential 

(4) A Familiarity ... /» i • 

with conditions of the reliability of that insight. 

Involved. T . . ■» . •% 

It is an evident and impressive 
familiarity with the intricate conditions in- 
volved in these processes. Not a phase of pos- 
sible occurrence in the progress of Christian ex- 
perience but is anticipated and provided for in 
repeated forms by this unerring Scriptural in- 
sight. The workings of the psychic faculties in 

1 John x. 10. * Rom. viii. 37. 



264: A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

these saving processes seem to be clear as in a 
blazing sunlight to this inspired insight. The 
weaknesses, 1 the subterfuges, 2 the callousness 3 of 
the sin-vitiated human heart 4 are distinctly 
perceived and recognized. The provision of 
promise for the psychological moment is multi- 
tudinous, exact, adequate. The soul gazes into 
the depths of this Scriptural insight as into a 
" mirror " 5 and recognizes the exposure of all 
the secrets of its hidden conscious seclusions. 
This amazing familiarity with all the occurring 
situations arising in the psychical pathway along 
which Christian experience moves presents con- 
vincing evidence that this insight is qualified to 
speak with assuring trustworthiness of every 
phase of the conscious states occurring in Chris- 
tian experience. 

All this, it is true, pertains to only one class 

of psychic activities. If Scriptural insight is 

such a revealer of psychical states 

Reliability Within . 

conscious states as the facts we have just consid- 

Demonstrated. , , , . • i • ,i 

ered would seem to indicate, then 
why does it not open up with equal clearness 
all classes of conscious states, intellectual as well 
as spiritual ? In reply to this inquiry it need 
only be said that Scriptural insight is not en- 
gaged in the elucidation of general psychological 

1 Rom. vii. 23. 2 Heb. iii. 13. 3 Matt. xix. 8. 

4 Jer. xvii. 9. 6 James i. 23. 



RELIABILITY OF SCRIPTURE INSIGHT 265 

science. Its sole concern is to deal with those 
psychical states that are connected with the proc- 
esses of saving grace. This being its supreme 
ii nd exclusive task, it must not be considered 
faulty if we find it limiting itself everywhere 
thereto. In this, its specific field, it has demon- 
strated itself accurate above mistake, reliable 
beyond all doubt, and therefore trustworthy to 
the utmost degree, in all matters however pro- 
found or recondite pertaining to the conscious 
states of Christian experience. 



V 

THE ULTIMATE POWEE, THE HOLY SPIEIT 

We have seen how trustworthy Scripture in- 
sight is in the perception and statement of the 
order and nature of the conscious 
proven Accuracy of occurrences in Christian expe- 

Scripture Insight. t 

rience. The exact correspondence 
between such statement and the universal ex- 
perience of those who have given such occur- 
rence opportunity to arise by meeting the psy- 
chical conditions, in consequence of which they 
alone take place, forms a mass of evidence be- 
yond all reasonable dispute. The demonstra- 
tion of the unerring accuracy of that insight in 
the region of consciousness is overwhelming. 
No less astute observer of human life than the 
historian, Hallam, states as his deliberate con- 
clusion : " I see that the Bible fits into every 
fold and crevice of the human heart. I am a 
man and I believe this is God's book because it 
is man's book." We have seen how perfectly at 
home, even from its earliest utterances, Scripture 
insight has been in all the intricate and abstruse 
processes of the conscious states involved in 
Christian experience. We must have been im- 

266 



THE ULTIMATE POWER 207 

pressed that in the case of this insight we are 
dealing with an intelligence that possesses un- 
equalled power of penetration into the depths of 
the psychical life and undoubtable reliability in 
the uncovering of the processes active in the 
profoundest psychical depths. 

We are now ready to conclude that this Scrip- 
tural insight, presenting such indisputable cre- 
dentials of trustworthiness so far 

Valid Conclusion _ ,, . 

From such Ac- as we are able to follow it in con- 
curacy. . 1 J ••« 1 

sciousness, has most positive claim 

upon our credence whenever we shall find it to 
speak concerning such occurrences as take place 
in the depths of the subconscious. The differ- 
ence between these two classes of psychical oc- 
currences, those transpiring in consciousness and 
those in subconsciousness, is one evidently aris- 
ing in the limitations of the ordinary powers of 
human insight. Both are occurrences in the 
psychical field of kindred, if not identical, na- 
ture ; their differentiation is one of location, one 
class transpiring under the light of conscious- 
ness, the other in the obscurity of subconscious- 
ness. Indeed the difficulties arising in the anal- 
ysis of conscious occurrences are often as in- 
surmountable for ordinary insight as are those 
pertaining to subconscious processes. A pene- 
tration equal to the task of clearing away all 
such difficulties with reference to conscious psy- 



268 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

chical activities, as we have seen Scriptural in- 
sight to have, may as well be able to do the 
same for subconscious spiritual occurrences. It 
should, therefore, be no strain upon the most 
scrupulous investigation to concede to Scripture 
insight the right to speak with authority con- 
cerning the subconscious conditions involved in 
Christian experience should it so choose. 

In point of fact we do find Scripture insight 

dealing with these subconscious phenomena. 

Indeed, this insight appears to 

Scripture Insight . ° * L 

penetrates into the know no difference between the 

Subconscious. • -i . 1 1 • 

conscious and the subconscious in 
point of ease of perception or clearness of their 
communication. In the readiness of its knowl- 
edge and the positiveness of its declaration this 
insight is just as much at home in the obscure 
depths of the subconscious as within the psy- 
chical area illumined by consciousness. There 
is no equivocation, no shadow of uncertainty. 
It speaks with all distinctness of those psychical 
conditions that never appear in consciousness 
and yet that, in the causal order of the succes- 
sive states of Christian experience, must occur 
before others that do appear in the area of con- 
sciousness. Without these states, of which 
Scripture insight alone speaks, there is an un- 
accounted-for gap in the continuity of states. 
Without these underlying states, thus supplied, 



THE ULTIMATE POWER 209 

the attempt to trace the progress of Christian 
experience would come to certain bridgeless 
chasms beyond which we would be powerless to 
pass. For instance, the awakening and alarm- 
ing, taking place in the depths of the subcon- 
scious, alone account for the intense conviction 
for sin appearing in consciousness. So also for- 
giveness, cleansing, regeneration and adoption, 
all occurring in the subconscious, alone account 
for the conscious states appearing in conversion. 
(See Diagram III.) But Scripture insight is the 
only source of information shedding any light 
upon these deep-lying processes. It meets the 
situation exactly ; it bridges the chasm per- 
fectly ; it fills out the succession of states with- 
out a break. In all candour we are bound 
either to concede its trustworthi- 
such msight negs and accept its statement of 

trustworthy. IT 

the occurrences in the region of 
the subconscious as perfectly valid and reliable 
or show adequate reason why we decline so to 
do by disproving its trustworthiness in the mat- 
ter of subconscious activities. It is to be ad- 
mitted that the passage from the area of con- 
sciousness, the psychical region in which the 
reliability of Scripture insight is fully demon- 
strable, to the region of subconsciousness, where 
the proofs of that reliability are so largely infer- 
ential, is an act that will depend much upon the 



270 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

attitude of the individual as to openness of mind 
towards the probabilities of the case. Absolute 
demonstration is forever out of the question. 
Nevertheless, inferential probabilities are so 
many and so strong that the open mind confi- 
dently follows Scripture insight in its luminous 
exploitation of the subconscious in Christian ex- 
perience. 

All of the subconscious occurrences, just al- 
luded to, repeatedly delineated by Scripture in- 
sight, we have examined in detail in 
The crucial fae somewhat extended analysis of 

Question. */ 

them found in the earlier chapters 
on the cataclysmic states. We are not, therefore, 
here specifically concerned with them except as 
they are incidentally connected with the object 
of our search. From these conditions, occurring 
in the subconscious, we must take one step 
deeper down where our inquiry leads. We are be- 
neath the subconscious states now ; we are at the 
very beginnings. Amid the solitudes of these 
depths of the soul, with an inexpressible sense of 
awe upon us, we ask : What power is operative 
here producing the psychical states we have 
been finding? This is the crucial question 
of all Christian psychology ; this moment is 
the culmination of our whole inquiry. In the 
silences of these underlying recesses of the human 
spirit, where so little is attuned to the dull ear of 



THE ULTIMATE POWER 271 

ordinary thought, once again the voice of Scrip- 
tural insight is alone heard in positive reply : "It 
is God that worketh in you hoth to will and to do 
of His good pleasure." l The deep, omnipotent 
background of all Christian experience is thus 
declared to be the unresting power 
The Answer of f the Ho ] y Spirit. Scriptural 

Scriptural Insight. 1/ x r 

insight is tirelessly insistent in the 
declaration of this fact. It stakes its whole va- 
lidity on this one ultimate verity. The causal 
power underlying Christian life is not hypnotic 
suggestion ; it is not neural reaction of any sort ; 
it is not latent psychic energy let loose by subtle 
play upon its occult connections like the push- 
ing of an electric switch. Scripture insight 
ignores all such inferential and erroneous ori- 
gins, alleged by some, and sets them aside by 
reiterated and positive assertion. No possible 
interpretation of passages as figurative, as per- 
sonifications of psychic forces remotely sourcing 
in the divine Personality, can so emasculate 
these utterances as to make them conform to a 
mechanical theory of this ultimate power and 
exclude the spontaneous action of the Holy 
Spirit in the depths of the subconscious. The 
presence of God, as a conscious parental Person- 
ality, in this unconscious area of the psychical 
field, projecting into the conscious area influ- 

1 Phil. ii. 13. 



272 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

ences, impulses, states, whenever volitional con- 
ditions open the channels for such transfusion, 
is the unequivocal signification of the declara- 
tions of Scripture insight. 

This contact of the conscious, personal Spirit 

of God with the conscious spirit of man is vital 

to the maintenance of the experi- 

Elimination of Di- , x 

vine Personality ence we call Christian. The re- 
solving of such direct contact, in 
biological or psychological thought, into the 
processes or reactions of psychical energies, with 
remote and ultimate reference to a possible di- 
vine origin practically impersonal and uncon- 
scious, is fatal to an intelligent and intense 
Christian experience. The attributes of person- 
ality and consciousness, inhering in that divine 
Presence operating in the depths of the Chris- 
tian soul, are absolutely essential. What God 
does remotely, by second-hand agencies through 
intermediary processes of nerve cells and forces, 
cannot meet the terms of Scripture declaration. 
To pray to, to commune with, to have the abid- 
ing indwelling of only and merely psychical 
forces with their complex interactions, with no 
immediate living and loving Personality, is to 
eliminate all warmth and vitality from Chris- 
tian experience. When the divine Ear that 
hears is ascertained to be only the excitations of 
nervous ganglia, and the divine Love that re- 



THE ULTIMATE POWER 273 

sponds is found to be only their automatic reac- 
tions, then the Spirit of God is quickly felt to 
evacuate the spirit of man and the heart to drop 
out of Christian experience. An interpretation 
that conceives of the process of Christian experi- 
ence as purely automatic, mechanical, unvoli- 
tional, save as harmony with the most arbitrary 
law may be seemingly volitional in a delusive 
way, takes all sense of direct personal contact 
with the Spirit of God out of Christian experi- 
ence, strips it of all warmth of spirituality, leav- 
ing it cold and formal, though perhaps admir- 
able as an exact chemical process would be. 
The forms and habits may survive; the moral- 
ity may maintain itself by momentum and the 
artificial supports of social influ- 

Survival of Formal- z^i • , . . i . t 

ism and Theism. ences. Christian theism may read- 
ily survive, as it has in the later 
adjustments of physical science; indeed, there 
is nothing in such an interpretation that does 
other than emphasize the wonder of the mechan- 
ism itself; and such mechanism does but make 
more incontrovertible the theism that alone ac- 
counts for its existence and operation. But 
theism and Christian experience are radically 
distinct. Theism may thrive upon that which 
totally destroys every vestige of vitality in the 
living experience of the Christian. That psy- 
chology which, by its biological theories, resolves 



274 A STUDY IN OEIGINS 

all processes of Christian experience into nerve 
and brain action, relegating all recognition of 
immediate divine Presence and action in that 
experience to the limbo of mystic theological 
fancy, unscientific and unnecessary to account for 
the phenomena involved, is a destructive attack, 
however much disguised in conciliatory terms, 
upon all that is vital and potent in Christian 
experience. Scripture insight, in its answer to 
the crucial problem we have stated and in the 
most positive rejection of the above interpreta- 
tion, portrays divine Consciousness coming into 
immediate causal communion with human con- 
sciousness, through the orderly processes of the 
subconscious region. Thus in the depths of the 
subconscious, well beyond all ordinary human 
penetration, is definitely located by inspired per- 
ception the conscious divine Person, loving, con- 
victing, forgiving, transforming, empowering, 
unfolding and glorifying the redeemed spirit of 
man. 

We shall consider separately, and at some 
length, several of the most pertinent passages 
classified Grouping declarative of this perception of 

of Passages Em- n • j • • i j ■ ± ±~\ 

bodying scripture Scripture insight in answer to the 
Answer. question we are here facing. We 

cannot attempt to be exhaustive in the presenta- 
tion of Scripture expression of the fact we claim. 
Happily this is unnecessary, as a few of the most 



THE ULTIMATE POWER 275 

emphatic passages will suffice to set forth the in- 
disputable trend of Scripture in its display of this 
fundamental, ultimate Power in Christian experi- 
ence. We shall undertake to see what Scripture 
insight sees as it peers into these depths. " In St. 
Paul's writing the biblical doctrine of the oper- 
ation of the Holy Spirit reaches its completion. 
. . . He teaches . . . that the Spirit has 
come to regenerate and restore the personal life, 
. . dwelling in the body as His temple, 
identifying Himself with the human spirit in its 
struggle with the flesh and its striving after 
God, until He has perfected the nature which 
the Son of God redeemed and has raised it to 
the measure of the stature of the fullness of 
Christ. " x For the purposes of condensation I 
have attempted a brief but comprehensive clas- 
sification of a number of the most pertinent state- 
ments of Scripture. These deliverances of Scrip- 
ture insight set forth the following five facts as 
ultimate and final for the entire psychical area. 
First : The Spirit of God is an abiding Pres- 
ence somewhere in the psychical field of the willing 
soul. The fact that such Presence 

(i) The Holy Spirit . , . , . - 

Abiding in p S y. is not a direct object ot conscious- 
chicai Field. negs carries no we i g ht. The dwell- 

ing place of the Spirit of God in the psychical field 
is the region of subconsciousness. Scripture in- 

1 Hastings, "Dictionary of the Bible," Vol. II, p. 411. 



276 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

sight makes clear that Presence by specific af- 
firmations of the fact. One of the sublimest 
spectacles ever opened to the thought of man is 
the vision sketched as from the very lips of 
God : "Thus saith the high and lofty One that 
inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I 
dwell in the high and holy place, with him also 
that is of a contrite and humble spirit." * The 
bars of sinful volition withdrawn and the gate- 
ways of psychical depths thrown wide open in 
contrition and humility, the infinite Spirit of 
God enters there to dwell. He, therefore, be- 
comes an abiding Presence ever after to be taken 
into account in all of the subsequent life of the 
soul. Christ Himself joins in the declaration of 
this fundamental fact. When speaking of the 
Spirit of God, He says, " He dwelleth with you 
and shall be in you." 2 It would seem as if the 
first clause of this statement were not sufficiently 
exact to satisfy the purpose of Christ and He, 
therefore, adds the final clause asserting, with- 
out possible ambiguity, the presence of the 
Spirit abiding within the psychical limits of the 
personalities to whom He spoke. Apostolic ut- 
terance unites with the prophet and the Christ in 
the assertion of this Presence. The statement is 
thrown into the interrogatory form that its 
emphasis may be made the strongest possible : 

1 Isa. lvii. 15. 2 John xiv. 17. 



THE ULTIMATE POWER 277 

" Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and 
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" 1 
Again the double clause is employed to bring 
out the fact of the positive presence of the Holy 
Spirit in the psychical depths. Thus Scripture 
insight discloses the Spirit of God as the abiding, 
underlying Presence in Christian experience. 

Second : Tlie Spirit of God is either the initiator, 

or sustainer, of all impulse towards better life. 

Scripture insight reveals not only 

(a) The Holy * & . . J 

spirit beneath the presence oi the bpirit in the 

Good Impulse. i • -• i ,-t i x i tt* • 

psychical depths, but also His posi- 
tive action on the psychical states as well. It 
must not seem to be the contention of the author 
that no better impulse ever arises in man apart 
from the action of the Holy Spirit. Even if 
that could be proven to be the fact, such con- 
tention is not necessary to our purpose. All 
that the fact before us covers is that to every 
better impulse arising in the soul of man the 
Spirit of God is related either as initiator or 
sustainer. The earliest utterance of Scripture 
expressive of this subtle and momentous fact is 
the passage holding such wealth of suggestion : 
" My Spirit shall not strive with man forever." 2 
The statement has a background prolific with 
strenuous, Spirit-generated impulse. It presents 
a scene of subconscious Spirit-action, under a 

1 1 Cor. iii. 16. * Gen. vi. 3. 



278 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

ceaseless effort of inducement to holy life. The 
same process is portrayed in the concise state- 
ment : " The Spirit also helpeth our infirmi- 
ties." l In the making of way for spiritual 
longing, in the formulation of prayerful desire, 
in the taking on of psychical attitude for the 
reception of divine response, human weakness 
and defect are seen to be supplemented by in- 
tense and superhuman cooperation of the Spirit 
of God. He pours into the soul a restless uplift 
of yearning appeal. The most remarkable vision 
of this inspirational action of the Spirit of God 
opens when He is declared to be working in the 
psychical area " Both to will and to do of His 
good pleasure." 2 That subtle unconscious proc- 
ess by which volitional stubbornness is softened 
and moulded, by which volitional weakness is 
empowered, by which volitional determination 
is crowded to its consummation in action, all 
this is here graphically connected with its 
causal Source, the operation of the Spirit of God 
in the impenetrable depths of the soul. In such 
unequivocal utterances Scripture insight reveals 
the origin of the holier impulses ever character- 
istic of the life of the Christian. 

Third : The Spirit of God is the active power 
in all genuine work of spiritual regeneration. The 
action of the Holy Spirit, in the subconscious 

1 Rom. viii. 26. * Phil. ii. 13. 



THE ULTIMATE POWER 279 

depths, goes farther than to affect the simple 
states of consciousness. Scripture insight sees 
this action to be also reconstruct- 
ed The Hoiy spirit j ye j n its e ff ec t upon the spiritual 

Alone Regenerates. A L 

being itself. It is thus made clear 
that beneath the process of regeneration in 
Christian experience is the readjusting power of 
the Spirit of God. Scripture insight, in the cry 
of a needy soul, brings this work of regeneration 
to divine power as alone adequate to its accom- 
plishment : " Create in me a clean heart, O 
God." 1 The power that takes a heart, polluted 
and perverted in its sin, and makes it clean and 
right is the power of God. The resultant is a 
"new creature." 2 The explicit reservation of 
this recreating work to the power of God is 
made in the words defining the process operat- 
ing in those who have accepted the way of sal- 
vation through Christ : " Which were born, not 
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the 
will of man, but of God." 3 The distinct source 
of the regenerating power is thus traced to its 
ultimate identification in the volitional action 
of the Spirit of God. Possibly nowhere does 
Scripture insight set forth the fact under con- 
sideration more definitely than in that remark- 
able characterization of the Gospel of Christ : 
" It is the power of God unto salvation." 4 The 

1 Psa. li. 10. 8 2 Cor. v. 17. 8 John i. 13. 4 Eom. i. 16. 



280 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

origin of the energy operative in gospel proc- 
esses, effecting the changed life, is here also lo- 
cated in God. Christ puts this with unmistak- 
able clearness in His interview with Nicodemus, 
where He repeatedly uses the language descrip- 
tive of this process : " Born of the Spirit." l 
The reconstruction of the moral being, justly 
characterized as a regeneration, is here dis- 
tinctly affirmed to be the specific work of the 
Spirit of God. While operating in the subcon- 
scious area, He is perceived by Scripture insight 
to be actually doing this reconstructive work. 

Four : The Spirit of God is the source of every 

specific increase of life and power experienced in 

Christian consciousness. Scripture 

(4) The Holy Spirit . x 

confers Life and insight makes clear that promi- 
nent among the functions of the 
divine Presence in the human soul is the per- 
petual infusion of life : " To revive the spirit of 
the humble and to revive the heart of the con- 
trite ones." 2 Such revivification is, in essence, 
the addition to the psychical states of a measure 
of life from outside their inherent resources, 
from the superhuman life-giving energies of 
the divine indwelling Presence. More explicit 
vision of the source of spiritual life in the soul 
of the Christian could not be stated than this : 
"This life is in His Son. He that hath the 

1 John iii. 8. 2 Isa. lvii. 15. 



THE ULTIMATE POWER 281 

Son hath life ; and he that hath not the Son of 
God hath not life." l The divine Presence, abid- 
ing in the subconscious, communicates life to 
the believing heart and is the source of the con- 
tinued maintenance of that life in the soul. 
The origin of the inpouring of power, necessary 
to the sustaining of the soul on the high levels 
of Christian life, is vividly portrayed in the ap- 
peal : " Uphold me with Thy free Spirit." 2 This 
action of standing under by the Spirit of God is 
nowhere more positively sketched than by the 
use of that spectacular term, " uphold." The 
supports of Christian service are, so to speak, 
the currents of power streaming up from the 
unfathomed depths like up-bearing pillars based 
upon the indwelling and underlying divine 
Presence. This whole scene is unveiled in the 
words of that intercessory prayer : " That ye 
may be strengthened with might by His Spirit 
in the inner man." 3 This subtle transmission 
of power from the Spirit of God, through points 
of contact with deep-lying psychical areas, is 
here luminously displayed. Scripture insight 
thus reiterates its perception of the underlying 
Source of life and energy so strangely projected 
into consciousness in Christian experience. 

Five : The Spirit of God is the invigorating 
transformer in all the ascending acquirements in 

1 1 John v. 11-12. 8 Psa. li. 12. 8 Eph. iii. 16. 



282 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

Christian growth. In the perception of Scripture 

insight never does this divine Originator of 

specific psychical conditions drop 

(5) The Holy Spirit « i . 

Transforms in out of the processes of Christian 

Christian Growth. . ^ -, .-, , 

experience. On and up through 
all the ascents of the Christian life is this 
transforming Presence traced and His momen- 
tous part in the intricate processes delineated. 
This final fact, now before us, covers the eternal 
ascent of spiritual life in its endless approxima- 
tions to the infinite excellences of the very life 
of God. The generation of divine love through- 
out the conscious area is definitely portrayed in 
the declaration : " The love of God is shed 
abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost." * The 
transfusion of that afFectional temper, partaking 
of the very qualities of the love of God, among 
the spiritual faculties, is by the specific action of 
the Spirit of God. He originates the afFectional 
attitude. Operating at the beginnings, in the 
submerged depths of the psychical life, He per- 
meates and animates the whole being with the 
holy impulses of divine love. This moulding 
power, active in the ascending transformations 
of the Christian life, is strikingly exhibited in 
the language : " Transformed into the same 
image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit." 2 
The " same image " in this statement is the 

^om. v. 5. *2Cor. iii. 18. 



THE ULTIMATE POWER 283 

likeness to the " glory of the Lord," as will be 
seen by examination of the whole passage. The 
transformations, rising from" glory to glory " of 
the divine likeness, are then wrought in the 
psychical structure by the direct action of the 
Spirit of God. The causal action of the divine 
Spirit, in these successive spiritual transforma- 
tions, could not be more definitely stated by 
Scripture insight. The detailed enumeration of 
Christian attainments, attributed to the origi- 
nating operation of the Spirit by the meaning of 
the term under which they are classified, " The 
fruit of the Spirit," is a conclusive affirmation of 
the fact we are considering : " The fruit of the 
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- 
ness, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem- 
perance." 1 Scripture insight sees the source of 
these exalted spiritual attainments to be the im- 
planting and ripening action of the Spirit of 
God. 

Such is the vital deliverance of Scripture in- 
sight in its own language. It might be ampli- 
fied a thousand times more co- 

Deliverance of . . 

scripture insight piously. This, however, is here 

Accepted and Final. . .. ■u . i 

unnecessary since it will not be 
seriously questioned that the passages cited ade- 
quately represent the testimony of Scripture in- 
sight. To such as receive this insight as reliable 

1 Gal. v. 22, 23, 



284 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

the problem of origins in Christian experience is 
settled. The ultimate power, operative in the 
subconscious area, producing the otherwise un- 
explained effects in consciousness, is the in- 
dwelling Spirit of God. If Scripture insight is 
in error in this supreme exercise of its powers of 
perception then it is open to the charge either of 
reprehensible ignorance assuming to speak in a 
matter of which it has no knowledge, or of de- 
liberate deception, before either one of which its 
entire range of deliverances must fall into the 
merited contempt of all candid minds. Neither 
of these alternatives is thinkable in view of de- 
monstrable facts, a sufficient number of which 
we have already considered. We, therefore, con- 
fidently close this study with the conclusion that 
the final word has been spoken by Scripture in- 
sight, and that the ultimate power, operative in 
Christian experience, is the Holy Spirit. 



VI 

THE WONDER AND GLORY UNDIMINISHED 

It now only remains to give brief emphasis to 

the supernatural factors of Christian experience, 

still unimpaired after any and all 

Supernatural . 

Factors Unim- reputable scientific scrutiny of that 
paire ' experience as a psychological proc- 

ess. As at the beginning of our inquiry con- 
cerning this inner life, so now at its close we are 
assured that any dread of such inquiry is with- 
out foundation and unworthy of a sturdy confi- 
dence in the substantial nature of the experience 
we are considering. This fact may be given 
even stronger expression by the statement, whose 
demonstration is outlined in the foregoing chap- 
ters, that all unprejudiced application of scien- 
tific method to the psychical processes of Chris- 
tian experience does but make clearer the 
invariable order and unfathomable mystery of 
that experience, leaving its origins in the im- 
penetrable regions of spiritual life where operate 
the supernatural and divine. One of the fore- 
most thinkers in the field of religious psychology 
makes remarkable declaration of this fact : " It 
would seem as though transmundane energies, 

285 



286 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

God, if you will, produced immediate effects 
within the natural world to which the rest of 
our experience belongs." 1 

The wonder of ordinary Christian experience 
remains unmodified. Elaborate explanations, 

with overbearing assumption and 
™ n a n b d a " e< f bides bewildering terminology, have no 

substantial effect to weaken it. 
No exhaustive course of investigation avails to 
eliminate it. The wonderful phenomena of the 
conscious area retain, under the severest scien- 
tific examination, all of their inherent mysteri- 
ous qualities. To define and classify them has 
had no result to dissipate these unexplainable 
features of their nature. The dispersion of the 
haze of indistinctness has but made this wonder 
the more pronounced. The certainty of the 
superhuman origin of these phenomena is un- 
shaken. Indeed, the identification of God as 
that origin is made the more rational and pos- 
itive. The wonder deepens with all such cor- 
roboration of direct divine action. To feel the 
immediate and unquestioned touch of the per- 
sonal conscious Spirit of God on consciousness is 
to stir in the experiencing soul an indescribable 
sense of awe. That the divine Presence does 
condescend to actually take immediate part in the 
psychical processes, and that consciousness does 

1 James, " Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 524. 



WONDER AND GLORY UNDIMINISHED 287 

veritably feel the manipulation of the divine 
Hand in the changes of the conscious states, in 
the infusion of conscious power, all this, abiding 
as a demonstrated surety under the most pene- 
trating investigation of psychological research, 
thrills the soul with an unutterable feeling of 
wonder, of which it does not seem to lie within 
the power of the most adverse criticism to de- 
prive the devout heart. In accord with this fact 
is the statement : " If the grace of God miracu- 
lously operates, it probably operates through the 
subliminal door, then. But just how anything 
operates in this region is still unexplained, and 
we shall do well now to say good-bye to the 
process of transformation altogether, leaving it, if 
you like, a good deal of a psychological, or 
theological, mystery." * It would appear that 
the maturest conclusion of critical psycholog- 
ical inquiry is a willing confirmation of this 
wonder, even a stimulation of it, by reason of 
the evident nature of the phenomena of con- 
sciousness inducing it. 

A survival still more remarkable ensues upon 

the conclusions we have reached. All the glory 

that inheres in the primitive con- 

The Glory Shines . * . 

undimmed : (i) in ception oi Christian experience by 

God's Presence. « ,1 , -i • ,• n ,t 

reason oi the actualization oi the 
divine Presence and fellowship remains without 

Barnes, "Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 270. 



288 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

one ray gone or one splendour tarnished. To 
have the psychical field as the veritable dwell- 
ing-place of the Spirit of God gives to Christian 
experience a glory of indescribable intensity. 
To hold as its indwelling guest the infinite Per- 
sonality confers upon the finite spirit enjoying 
it a resplendent dignity and glory but feebly 
conceivable. All the exaltations of such Pres- 
ence are preserved to the previously sullied 
soul of man. The divine Presence is offered to 
the shrivelled psychical field of the sinful heart. 
The Lord of Heaven, the Sovereign of the 
Universe, with all His effulgent personality 
comes into the area of the psychical being as an 
abiding Presence to uplift, enlarge, glorify by 
the simple fact of His inbeing. Back of the veil 
that shrouds the subconscious, in those reaches 
of the psychical structure where the illumina- 
tions of consciousness never penetrate, here 
enters and abides the infinite person of the 
eternal God, forever putting upon the life of the 
Christian the stamp of resplendent dignity and 
glory. The highest deliverance of the most 
astute psychological science of our day, as it 
stands at the gateways of the subconscious, with 
bared head and bated breath, is to say, " Lo, 
He is here." Out from the depths of the 
Christian soul, in which the gracious work 
of Christ is being wrought, the glory of the 



WONDER AND GLORY UNDIMINISHED 289 

indwelling divine Presence still shines un- 
dimmed. 

When the presence of the Spirit of God in the 

subconscious self of the Christian is conceded, 

only the beginning of the real 

(a) in God-s glory of such indwelling has been 

Fellowship. O J O 

stated. The resultant interchanges 
of companionship and loving fellowship bring 
with them to the favoured life an added glory 
far transcending that of the abiding Presence 
only. The sublime tribute to the worth of the 
individual man, rendered by the condescension 
of the Spirit of God in entering into such famil- 
iar relationships with Him, surrounds the en- 
tire situation with a flood of glory. The amaz- 
ing uplift, by which even the sin-polluted soul 
is exalted to such relationships with the divine 
Presence, in the glory it confers surpasses the 
most prodigal myths that ever opened their fic- 
titious splendours upon human thought. In 
that inspiring scene that Christ Himself, in 
the Apocalyptic vision, pictures when He 
says, " I will come in to him, and will sup 
with him, and he with Me," 1 what confi- 
dences, what revelations, what reliances, what 
adorations, what responsive abandonments 
of holy affection, what heavenly joys of in- 
describable comradeship spring into view 

1 Rev. iii. 20. 



290 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

between the soul and its divine indwelling 
Guest ! 

This glory of divine association rises to a still 

higher level when the Spirit of God takes the 

faulty spirit of man into partner- 

workinl° d s C °" stli P witn Himself in the great 
work of making a perfected race. 
This astounding transaction occurs when the 
Holy Spirit inspires with love, impels to serv- 
ice, pleads with the lips, shines in the life, suf- 
fers in the sacrifice, wins through the surren- 
dered and anointed heart. Apostolic perception 
caught a glimpse of this glory when that sug- 
gestive calculation was made : " If so be that we 
suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified 
together. For I reckon that the sufferings of 
this present time are not worthy to be compared 
with the glory that shall be revealed in us." 1 
This working affiliation with God, in which He 
stands behind the curtains of the subconscious, 
acting upon the hidden sources of psychical life, 
inspiring, guiding, intoning, manipulating, mak- 
ing of human powers peerless agencies aflame 
with His presence and athrob with His ener- 
gies, — such partnership with God is the un- 
speakable glorification of man. With what in- 
describable exaltation it endues the life of the 
Christian ! 

1 Rom. viii. 17, 18. 



WONDER AND GLORY UNDIMINISHED 291 

The climax of this glory is the psychical im- 
press, or metamorphosis, arising from this divine 
Presence, fellowship and coopera- 
u) in God-s con. tion g ucn pS ychical contact and 

ferred Likeness. r J 

spiritual mingling subjects the 
finite and plastic personality in this relationship 
to an inevitable process of moulding and trans- 
fusing. Nothing in all this association with the 
Spirit of God is of such tremendous import as 
the resultant structural impartation of the like- 
ness of God. To be filled, in all the subcon- 
scious area, with the divine Presence, to be 
steadily held in the gracious harmonies of His 
fellowship, to be surcharged with His power 
and guided from the innermost counsels of His 
love and wisdom, is to take on, soon or late, 
finite similarities to infinite excellences and 
glories. Human thought can apprehend no 
higher glory for the spirit of man than to be 
fashioned more and more into the possible simil- 
itudes to the divine attributes. It is the glory 
of endless approximations to an infinite Type, 
the very perfection of structure and action. 
Such transformations can alone arise from the 
infinite skill and power of the divine Personal- 
ity, ever issuing His products from His won- 
drous laboratory in the subconscious, projecting 
them into the conscious and tangible through 
the profound processes of the Christian life. The 



292 A STUDY IN ORIGINS 

essential and climactic glory in Christian expe- 
rience thus centres about and radiates from the 
distinct presence and operation of the Holy 
Spirit in the impenetrable depths of the psy- 
chical life, conferring an ever-increasing Christ- 
likeness. 

All this follows from the unequivocal conclu- 
sion of Christian psychology that the ultimate 
power in Christian experience is 

D^ U ne a Odgfn° m the H()1 y S P irlt ' In a11 HJS 0m " 

nipotent majesty the Spirit of God 
sits enthroned in the subconscious background 
of the life of the Christian. All of the phenom- 
ena of the spiritual life, arising so strangely 
from underlying depths into Christian con- 
sciousness, originate with Him. All inquiry 
into the details of experimental facts but makes 
clearer the vision of Him and His activities. 
Every other alleged origin falls utterly down 
through inadequacy and unsupported assump- 
tion. The Spirit of God being thus left in abso- 
lute possession of the entire field of origins in 
the vital phenomena of the Christian life, all of 
the wonder and glory of such intimate and causal 
relationship remain like an upspringing halo 
glowing over all these profound experimental 
processes. All of their hallowed sacredness, all 
of their holy superiority over ordinary phenom- 
ena, all of their unique and eternal meaning 



WONDER AND GLORY UNDIMINISHED 293 

emerges from the ordeal of the most rigorous 
inquiry of psychological science the same as 
when it went into that ordeal save it be with 
the acquirement of an added advantage, the out- 
standing of clearer outline of rational confirma- 
tion. So far as reliable psychological investiga- 
tion of Christian experience has gone to-day it 
hands back to the simple trusting Christian 
every vital fact of this experimental life unim- 
paired in all its former wonder and glory. 

We thus bring to a close this part of our in- 
quiry with every essential factor of the inner 
life of the Christian, as experienced 

Vital Factors of i i • i i i i • l j? 

inner Life in Tact, and cherished by devout souJs of 
the present and past, in full view 
and presenting, in the blaze of recent research, 
even more positive and intelligible verity than 
in the dim and credulous mysticism of former 
times when such a thing as exact psychological 
study of the facts of Christian experience had 
not occurred as a possibility to human thought. 
We await farther light, arising from more ex- 
tended research, with the confident assurance 
that this situation will not be materially 
changed. The inner life of the Christian is to 
be the growing fact of all coming time. 



BOOK II 
The Outer Life 



The States of Christian Character 



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THE EISE INTO THE EXTEENAL 

The psychical states that constitute the total- 
ity of Christian experience comprise a group of 
spiritual conditions and energies 
inner Life cnar cr ec l with tremendous potenti- 

Irreprcssible. ° * 

ality. In full normal proportions 
they form an irrepressible aggregation of motive 
power. They seize upon every avenue of com- 
munication with the external world. They 
come into possession of every voluntary nerve 
and muscle of the human frame. " The natural 
terminus of all experiences, bodily and mental, 
is action. For the very sake, therefore, of 
thought and feeling, one must act." 1 In just the 
proportion that these psychical states are given 
the ascendancy in the conscious soul they be- 
come dominant in the control of every exit of 
volitional energy into action. With these states 
in undivided and perfectly adjusted supremacy 
inconsistent or incongruous volition is an abso- 
lute impossibility. Only when the psychic 
states of Christian experience lose their perfect 
tone, fall below normal, can a volition, or its 

1 King, " Reconstruction in Theology," p. 44. 
297 



298 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

subsequent action, drop out of exact alignment 
with what it is ascertained should be its sane 
and uniform external manifestation. 

What it is that constitutes the perfect external 

counterpart of the psychical life of the Christian 

is, in considerable degree, a matter 

Must Have Exact ' g . 

External counter- of education. The ideals, the 
standards of action, are in large 
part of conventional formation. The purity 
of intent, the sincerity of purpose, the rightness 
of impulse, the loyalty of volition, the dominant 
energy of execution, all are possibly coincident 
with a most deplorable ignorance of what con- 
stitutes genuine rectitude and beneficence in 
outer action. Standards of conduct, concepts 
of righteousness, ideals of practical goodness, 
are contributions to the life of the Christian 
made by the Word of God and the consensus 
of conviction arising from experimental appli- 
cation of the precepts enjoined. Christ " in- 
sisted upon right actions and refused the easy 
substitutes of sentiment and profession. A 
man's religion must be doing, not hearing only, 
if it is to be founded on a rock." x " Not every 
one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth 
the will of My Father which is in heaven." 2 

1 Carpenter, " Permanent Elements of Keligion," p. 193. 

2 Matt. vii. 21. 



THE RISE INTO THE EXTERNAL 299 

There must be ascertainable a scientific counter- 
part in external conduct, conforming with all 
the exactitude of nature to the 
such counterpart i mpu i ses an d needs of the trans- 

to be Formulated. r 

formed and divinely energized 
inner life of the Christian. The psychical states, 
composing genuine Christian experience, mature 
definite kinds of external action as inexorably 
as a fruit tree produces its fruit. The states of 
the normal inner life of the Christian are fruit- 
bearing states. Jesus clearly enunciates this 
principle in each of its two aspects. He said 
of the life of false prophets, " Ye shall know 
them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of 
thorns, or figs of thistles?" 1 He said of the 
life of His disciples, " He that abideth in Me, 
and I in him, the same bringeth forth much 
fruit." 2 " Herein is My Father glorified, that 
ye bear much fruit ; so shall ye be My dis- 
ciples." 3 He elsewhere defines how that glori- 
fying is effected : " Let your light so shine be- 
fore men, that they may see your good works, 
and glorify your Father which is in heaven." 4 
Under the guidance of a devout and critical 
intelligence the development of appropriate 
and invariable fruitage is universal and inevi- 
table. 

1 Matt. vii. 16. s John xv. 5. 3 John xv. 8. 

4 Matt. v. 16. 



300 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

As the wisdom of the informed and expe- 
rienced horticulturist is needed by the inex- 
perienced fruit-grower in order to 

Formulation by x ° 

scripture and guard and guide the forces of the 

tree to bring out its most perfect 
genuine fruitage, so the wisdom of Scripture 
knowledge, interpreted by long processes of 
practical application in experience, is needed 
to guide the psychical energies to the produc- 
tion of that external fruitage which is the con- 
summate perfection of Christian conduct and 
character. When we undertake to follow the 
rise of the psychical states and energies of the 
inner Christian life into the tangible states of 
the outer life of the Christian we find ourselves 
almost wholly dependent upon the wisdom of 
the Word of God in its delineation of this 
genuine fruitage, and upon the experience of 
centuries for the illumination and interpretation 
of that delineation. By this means the external 
counterpart of the psychical states of Christian 
experience may, as an ever-perfecting achieve- 
ment, be accurately ascertained and reliably 
portrayed. 

Character, in all that we ordinarily mean by 
that comprehensive term, is composed of two 
hemispheres. One of these is bedded deep in 
the subconscious region of the inner life ; the 
other rises far into the tangible region of the outer 



THE RISE INTO THE EXTERNAL 301 

life and through conduct is bedded deep in the 

conscious perceptions of an observing world. 

Character, in essence, is neither 

Two Hemispheres .1 i , l'i.' •• 

in character thought nor volition nor emotion 

nor conduct. Character, in its 
inner hemisphere, is subconscious process and 
momentum induced and confirmed by con- 
scious volitional action repeated over and over 
again until it is wrought into the very subcon- 
scious temper or current of the being. It is the 
subconscious resultant of habitual action. Char- 
acter in this hemisphere gives the assurance of 
certain uniform psychical reactions when given 
motive-incitements are present. The character 
known, the reactions may, with a great degree 
of probability, be anticipated. Character, in its 
outer hemisphere, is the assurance, in the minds 
of observers, of certain uniform actions when 
given inducements or provocations are present. 
The character known, the resultant action may, 
with a good degree of positiveness, be anticipated. 
Any other action than such as is consistent with 
the known character issues in shock to the 
world of acquaintance. 

Under normal conditions in the life of the 
Christian both of these hemispheres are per- 
fectly consonant throughout, and together form 
the perfect sphere of full-orbed Christian 
character. The processes that produce these 



302 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

complementary hemispheres of Christian char- 
acter are simultaneous, many of them indeed 

being identical. They are the 
c^stTancVa°racter. processes of action in Christian 

service. That action which is 
only psychical, such as resisting improper 
impulse or entertaining a pure thought, 
enters only into the formation of the inner 
hemisphere of Christian character, being only 
a psychical act. That action that openly 
refuses participation in an unjust deed, or 
springs into eager performance of the self- 
sacrificing deed, enters into the formation 
of both the inner and outer hemispheres of 
character, being both a psychical and physical 
act. In the inquiry we are now entering upon 
we are to be specifically occupied with the for- 
mation of outer character inasmuch as that is 
more vitally involved in the rise of the psy- 
chical life of the Christian into the external ; the 
use of the term, character, hereafter in this 
treatise, will, therefore, be restricted in its 
meaning to character in its outer aspect. 

The psychology of the Christian life does not 
end with the consideration of the purely psy- 
chical conditions of the inner experience but 
finds itself under imperative necessity of deal- 
ing with the processes that have to do with the 
rise of the psychical forces into the formation of 



THE RISE INTO THE EXTERNAL 303 

conduct and character. The activities of Chris- 
tian experience are not the mere sportive ex- 
ercise of psychic processes. They 

Christian Psy- • j • i /> 

choiogy and the are not carried on simply tor 
the mental exhilaration or ecstasy 
that may be derived from them. If they be 
genuine, their solemnity, their anguish, their 
sacrifice, their strenuosity make such a con- 
struction of their nature an impossibility. As 
they rise above empty formality they become 
the most substantial, intense and exhausting 
psychical activities of which the soul of man is 
capable. In this aspect we see them to be the 
most powerful causal states. To make our 
study of them complete we must follow them in 
the exercise of their causal function, we must 
explore the channels of their power as it mounts 
and penetrates to the farthest reaches of con- 
duct. " We can conceive no salvation that does 
not include character. We believe that the 
ethical is always involved in every genuine re- 
ligious experience." Christian psychology is 
thus compelled, if it would cover the entire 
field involved, to enter the outer region of con- 
duct and character in the prosecution of its 
work. The religions of mythology easily 
evaded all contact with the realm of morals or 
conduct. There were no psychical states in 
them touching upon the springs of moral ac- 



304 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

tion. A like attempt in the Christian life de- 
grades Christian experience to a mere jugglery 
in emotions, a tragic performance in spiritual 
hypocrisy. The life of the Christian must be 
relieved of every last semblance to such a farci- 
cal travesty if it is to have its merited place in 
the modern world and fulfill its saving mission 
to a sin-blighted race. 

There are in the world of the Christian life 

phenomena like unto the transformations of 

enemy in the world of physical 

That Psychology . rni p pi 

Must Formulate science. The forces of the forgiv- 

that Outer Life. • . • . . xx , 

mg, regenerating, sustaining Holy 
Spirit, the forces of purity, love and volition in 
the psychical being are transformed into the 
forces of physical action, the forces present, in 
speech and look, in hand-clasp and errand of 
mercy, in deed of heroism or submission to 
martyrdom. The states of the psychical life are 
translated and transmuted into the states of the 
external life. " Unless the aspiration of the 
soul towards God is translated into its different 
forms and effects, it tends to die away into a 
mechanical and barren turn of mind." 1 The 
outer life of the Christian is transfigured by the 
transcendant forces and glories of the inner life. 
The Christian's outer life thus becomes a new 
channel for the material manifestation of the 

1 GraDger, " The Soul of the Christian," p. 253. 



THE RISE INTO THE EXTERNAL 305 

glorious power of God. Christian psychology, 
or some like procedure under whatever name 
characterized, must trace, define and direct this 
important process. It must depict, locate and 
correlate the essential elements of resultant 
Christian character as it is evolved in the outer 
life. The consummation of such work lies in 
the future when the formulation of every essen- 
tial factor in Christian character will be uni- 
formly conceded in the thought of the Christian 
world. 

The Christian world presents at this time a 

motley spectacle in the matter of character. No 

consensus of recognition appears ; 

Disparities in So- 
called christian no uniformity of standard exists. 

Character, professedly Christian, 

varies through the widest latitude. Indeed, 

with many Christian character so called has 

such uncertain significance as to have upon its 

face no valuation whatever. Only as it is 

proven, as all other character is by testing, 

is it permitted to have any standing, and then 

not as Christian character but as the character 

of common manhood. This is a humiliating 

concession, but the candid student of facts is 

compelled to make it. This disparity between 

the characters of professed Christians reaches 

over a wide range extending from the character 

inconsistent, unreliable, careless of moral dis- 



306 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

tinctions, unscrupulous, to the character pure, 
faithful, zealous for good, the highest type 
known to man. Yet back of all this hetero- 
geneous mass of incongruous character is the 
same alleged Christian life. To the cursory ob- 
server this is a hopeless tangle ; there seems no 
possible way out. This bewildering confusion 
of checkered character presented to the world as 
presumptively Christian is occasioned by two 
fatal mistakes. These mistakes are so pertinent 
to our work in hand that they must here be 
dwelt upon at some length. 

The first of these lamentable mistakes con- 
sists in this : Character that has not now, and 
never has had, the psychical states 

Arise from Two Mis- . . . . . 

takes : (i) No Re- or energies of a genuine Christian 

quired Experience. • i ji •* i' i 

experience underneath it has been 
foisted upon the world as Christian. Christian 
experience as a distinct and definite causal proc- 
ess, susceptible of scientific formulation into a 
group of correlated psychical states which must 
underlie all genuine Christian character, has 
counted for little or nothing in the world's 
thought. Any one professing to be a Christian 
has, without discrimination, been reckoned as 
such and his character accepted as a sample 
Christian character. Character, having beneath 
it nothing more than the forces of mere moral 
reformation, the lone and fluctuating volitional 



THE RISE INTO THE EXTERNAL 307 

energies of good impulse, has been loosely clas- 
sified with Christian character and the latter 
has been obliged to bear all the defects and 
failures incident to the weak and incompetent 
processes of the former. No blunder more un- 
just to true classification was ever made. Such 
course is to demand the excellences of Hamlet 
with Hamlet left out and to detract from the 
superiorities of the inimitable Hamlet by all the 
inferiorities of the pseudo-Hamlet. It is to load 
upon the matchless perfections of the exquisite 
and unique living rose all the defects in colour 
and form and vitality of the artificial wax prod- 
uct, to classify them together as members of 
the same floral family, when beneath the one are 
the incomparable processes of genuine life and 
beneath the other are only the lifeless processes 
of mechanical art. It is to throw the artificial 
and the vital together and call them all one. The 
day is coming when this injustice will be per- 
mitted no longer. Christian experience, consist- 
ing of definite, consecutive, divinely energized 
states, scientifically formulated and universally 
recognized by intelligent thinking, will be the 
sole basis of a character permitted to pass under 
the reputable name of Christian. When that 
day arrives Christian character, now so be- 
smirched by its motley and nondescript asso- 
ciations, will have come to its own superb estate, 



308 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

no more to struggle against the opprobrium of 
fatal defects and inconsistencies never its own 
but forever to shine in its own undimmed 
splendours. 

The second of these mistakes is this : No com- 
mon ground has been sought in Christian think- 
ing by which the universal quali- 
ty no Accredited ties f an accre di te d Christian 

Standard. 

character might be established as a 
guide to endeavour and a standard of judgment. 
Christian character, to a large degree, has been 
a nebulous entity. There has been far too little 
uniformity and fixity in its elements. The 
thought of it as an invariable outgrowth of 
transcendant inner states has had meagre ex- 
pression. The concept of it as a distinctly for- 
mulated product of psychical energies, exactly de- 
fined state by state, towards which the entire 
psychical forces should be urged and directed, 
and by which all character aspiring to classi- 
fication with it might be measured, has scarcely 
found any place in the thought of the Christian 
world. The whole idea of Christian character 
has been conceived so loosely that almost any 
character maintaining a fair degree of respect- 
ability could train under its banners and be 
counted in its ranks. Need we wonder that a 
motley array should gather under such group- 
ing? How grievous the mistake that has per- 



THE RISE INTO THE EXTERNAL 309 

mitted such laxity of concept so long to domi- 
nate the thought of the Christian world ! It 
would seem that the time has come for con- 
certed action towards a pronounced formulation 
of the definite qualities that are to be recog- 
nized as constituting accredited Christian char- 
acter. 

The psychology of the Christian life must 

lead in the work of establishing such a standard. 

It is not sufficient that that psy- 

Mrho d d yinExacter chology shall formulate, in an 
analytic way, the whole psychical 
process involved in the inner life of the Chris- 
tian, constituting the ever-ascending states of 
Christian experience ; it must also proceed to 
formulate, in a similar analytic way, the re- 
sultant processes rising into the outer life of the 
Christian, culminating in the ever-ripening 
states of Christian character. This is a delicate 
and intricate undertaking and cannot be speedily 
accomplished to the unanimous satisfaction of 
the Christian world. The ascent of the psy- 
chical states of Christian experience into the 
perceptible sphere of the outer life must and 
will be scientifically exploited. The appearing 
fruitage in action must be as minutely known 
as any growth now within the grasp of exact 
knowledge. The best methods by which to at- 
tain the most superior product must be ascer- 



310 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

tained. All this region of the Christian life 
awaits investigation and development by the 
exactness of psychological method in Christian 
thought. 



II 

THE FOEMATION OF CHARACTER STATES 

When, in the mind of the observing world, 
by actions repeated indefinitely, impressions of 

confirmed uniformity of conduct 
a P c r rFor^ a on. have been deeply made, then a 

state of character has been formed. 
When the whole cycle of the life's action has 
become, in a like manner, thoroughly known 
by ample observation and information, then the 
entire character has been completed, having 
been gradually constructed state by state. This 
external process in character-building is only a 
surface view of the whole profound movement. 
We are now prepared to take a comprehensive 
survey of all of the stages that unite in the pro- 
duction of that consummate flower in the world's 
civilization, — genuine Christian character. In 

such a survey we get a bird's-eye 

Stages Culminat- . /» i i i -i 

ing in christian view of the whole process and are 
the better able to discern the re- 
lation between the component parts. These 
successive stages are five in number. 

In our study of the inner life we have seen 

311 



312 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

that, in the very lowest depths of the spiritual 

being fathomable by psychical and Scriptural 

perception, the Spirit of God is discovered in 

action as the fundamental impulse 

theHo^ri^ and P ower ini tiating and propelling 
the movement by divine energy. 
We have seen that energy of the Holy Spirit, 
well below the reach of mental insight but dis- 
closed by the insight of Scripture, begetting 
definite states in subconsciousness. All this 
underlying stage has been seen to be charged to 
the full with the omnipotent potencies of the 
divine Presence. 

As we have proceeded with our study we have 
witnessed the powerful subconscious stage break 
through into consciousness in the 
£S££ production of the distinct states 
of conscious experience. State 
after state, in wonderful succession, has taken 
shape in the conscious area until the ascending 
chain of states has been lost amid the inexpress- 
ible glories of approximation to Christlikeness. 
We have found that throbbing through all these 
conscious states of Christian experience the up- 
streaming of divine energy from the subcon- 
scious has been an ever-dominant factor. 

We are now finding how this movement pushes 
on into the outer life, its experimental transfor- 
mations and unctions impelling it to distinct 



FORMATION OF CHARACTER STATES 313 

outer action, its dominant potencies empower- 
ing volition, under intelligent guidance, to issue 
in specific and appropriate kinds of conduct. 
The movement of the Christian 
0) issuance in life cannot be confined to the 

Conduct. 

psychic sphere ; it rises by irre- 
pressible impulsion into the visible world. It 
dictates the deed ; it tones the tongue ; it wields 
the will ; it manipulates the muscle ; it steadies 
the step ; it lives the life. 

We are seeing this movement, as it clothes it- 
self in conduct, pass under the unsparing obser- 
vation of men. They see the ac- 
obsei'vati'on! 11 *° tion ; they note the deed ; not a 
phase of conduct escapes them. 
They record repetitions and detect breaks in 
uniformity if such occur. Every quality of con- 
duct makes its inevitable impression. Every 
degree of volitional pressure in intensity and 
persistence is unavoidably registered on the ob- 
serving mind. Inconsistency, fluctuation, hesi- 
tancy, wherever present, enter into the record ; 
consistency, steadiness, firmness form an impor- 
tant part of the fund of information gathered. 
The whole trend and nature of conduct is put 
under continuous and merciless inspection. 

From the facts apprehended in such observa- 
tion definite conclusions inevitably follow. We 
see, therefore, this movement reaching its cul- 



314: STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

mination in the generalizations that appear in 
these conclusions. The constituent states of 
character are spontaneously formed by induc- 
tion in the mind of the world. 

g££££L The life is g iven its P lace amon s 

the forces for good or ill. The 
character is formed with a large degree of per- 
manence, though not unalterably. 

By this general survey of the stages of charac- 
ter formation we are enabled to clearly locate the 

view of conduct m P lace of conduct in the process. 
two Relations : (i) w e can the more readily study it 

To Its Causes. . . , . . 

with both of its two sides in view. 
There is the side of its causes. Conduct is the 
product of the psychical states ; it is the effect 
of the inner life. That inner life, in the case of 
the Christian, holds within itself such all-con- 
quering forces that conduct has no adequate ex- 
cuse for serious moral defect or sinful taint. It 
may have errors from ignorance and deficiencies 
in structural capacity, but it need have no de- 
fects from moral delinquencies. If such defects 
appear in conduct the reason must be found in 
corresponding defects in the states of the under- 
lying experience. Perfect saving experience is- 
sues in conduct perfect in moral quality so far 
as capacity and information will permit. Con- 
duct, therefore, as seen from the side of its causes, 
is the exact measure of the psychical states pro- 



FORMATION OF CHARACTER STATES 315 

during it in so far as the true norm of consistent 
conduct is known. 

There is the other side of conduct, that of its 
results, and it is this point of view that most 

concerns us now. Here conduct, 
(a) to its Results, in its turn, takes on the function 

of cause. By exact laws of psy- 
chical action conduct proceeds to bring about 
definite results in the thought of others. These 
definite results group themselves together to form 
successive states of character. To use the ter- 
minology of the chemist, these states of charac- 
ter are the precipitates in the mind of the ob- 
serving world deposited by the combination of 
kindred and continuous phases of conduct. Ac- 
tions of similar quality are naturally thrown to- 
gether, in the mind observing them, into a defi- 
nite group by themselves. The general quality 
of character which they exhibit at once appears 
in the perceiving consciousness, as a precipitate 
forms from the commingling of given chemicals 
in the test-lube of the chemist. That precipitate 
is not composed of any single one of the ingre- 
dients in the mixture, but is the result of the 
combination of them all in a comprehensive state 
that includes them all. 

In such way, certain aspects of conduct deposit 
certain states of character. For instance, a mer- 
chant is observed never to misrepresent his 



316 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

goods, always to be scrupulously exact in his 
weights and noted as correct, to a painstaking de- 
gree, in the return of every proper 
characte^statea penny in change, even to a child. 
The result of such conduct, re- 
peated through a continuous period, is that there 
is deposited, in the mind of his community, 
honesty as a distinct state in the recognized 
character of that individual. In like manner 
state after state of character is formed. Conduct, 
uniform and continuous, on affiliated lines of 
action, deposits in the minds of men successive 
and constituent qualities or states of character, 
one after another, until the whole character 
stands out in the mind of the observing world 
clear and complete. This is the universal proc- 
ess in character formation. 

By the view of the process just described, we 

are enabled to see how vital a part conduct fills 

in the life of the Christian. It is 

Definition of _ _ .. , 

christian conduct the only adequate and normal vent 
to the psychical energies operative 
in Christian experience. Without culmination 
and consummation in such conduct thoseliberated 
energies are diffused, dissipated and finally ex- 
tinguished. An astute observer of the general 
psychological law, under which this fact occurs, 
says, " Only through expression does any psy- 
chical state get its full significance. And on the 



FORMATION OF CHARACTER STATES 317 

other hand, that which is not expressed dies." 1 
The energies that are let loose in the psychical 
processes of Christian experience must have exit 
and application in specific forms of conduct. In 
just the measure that conduct varies from such 
exact and normal forms as are positively de- 
manded by these inner states and energies, the 
whole experience deteriorates and sinks into 
more or less rapid decay. Normal Christian ex- 
perience cannot survive the absence of normal 
Christian conduct. The development of Chris- 
tian experience, in its proper proportions and 
equipoise, is absolutely dependent upon the un- 
impeded issuance of that experience in exactly 
appropriate conduct. The delicate relations be- 
tween experience and conduct have, to this day, 
received all too little attention and emphasis. 
To adequately treat Christian experience, in its 
psychological aspects, we cannot stop short of 
definite portrayal of that conduct which is its 
proven reciprocal counterpart, and which is im- 
peratively required in order to its fullest acquire- 
ment and highest unfoldment. There is, there- 
fore, put upon us the imperative necessity of de- 
fining, in some degree of detail, the elements of 
conduct forming the exact external correlate of 
genuine Christian experience. 

Attendant upon such an analysis of conduct 

1 King, " Reconstruction in Theology," p. 224. 



318 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

as this definition involves, kindred conduct 

readily clusters itself together so as to enable us 

to arrive at the resultant states 

Conduct Defined, 

states of character of character. Indeed, with these 
clustered elements of kindred con- 
duct given, the states of character follow by 
the ordinary processes of inductive reasoning. 
Conduct thus spontaneously projects character. 
Mere verbal assertion cannot make character ; 
persistent profession will not issue in character ; 
conduct alone produces character. We have 
concluded that Christian experience has definite 
specific conduct which is its only legitimate is- 
sue in external action, and that just as definite 
as is that conduct is the character that is de- 
posited therefrom. If we define the conduct, we 
may simultaneously adduce the character ; the 
one follows from the other by a ready process of 
conclusion. As we are able to ascertain what are 
the elements of unvarying Christian conduct we 
proceed, by the inherent movement in the facts 
we handle, to the indubitable resultant states of 
Christian character. The psychology of Chris- 
tian experience, therefore, demands for its com- 
pletion the psychological treatment of Christian 
conduct and character thus covering the entire 
extent of the Christian life. 

Our method in such treatment will be to first 
ascertain what are the kindred elements of con- 



FORMATION OF CHARACTER STATES 319 

duct normally issuing from the psychical states 

of Christian experience, and then to proceed to 

the states of character necessarily 

Method of deposited by such conduct, un- 

Treatment. * */ » 

til the whole range of that char- 
acter shall have been traced and defined in 
its successive states. For purposes of the great- 
est conciseness of method possible, the clustered 
elements of conduct and their resultant state of 
character will be considered together. In our 
attempt to ascertain the exact elements of Chris- 
tian conduct, the outer action that perfectly 
conforms to the inner life of the Christian, we 
shall recognize the following sources of informa- 
tion and judgment in the order named : the 
Word of God, the experience of Christians, and 
the indication of the evident fitness of things. 
With such aid it is purposed to construct an ap- 
proximate outer life in elements of conduct and 
states of character. It is not anticipated that 
such construction will escape material dissent in 
the opinions of many. The hope is to present, 
at least, a working basis for the perfection of 
which we must wait for the accumulating 
wisdom of coming years and thinkers. 

A fully developed Christian experience, intel- 
ligently guided in its issue in outer life, projects 
a perfectly balanced and well-rounded Chris- 
tian character. The most frequent defect of 



Vision of Balanced 
Character Needed. 



320 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

Christian character, as we find it, is that it is 
off balance, some parts intensely in evidence, 
other parts exceedingly weak or 
entirely wanting. This dispro- 
portion does not always arise from 
defective experience. It often indicates unwise 
massing of the regenerated psychical energies 
upon one line of outer activity to the utter neglect 
of all others. It frequently occurs because of 
actual ignorance of what comprises the well- 
balanced proportions of perfect Christian con- 
duct. One great need of Christian service to- 
day is a true vision of the perfectly proportioned 
Christian character, every constituent element of 
conduct in its place and each such part given 
its proper share of prominence. Such a vision is 
needed as an exposure of too frequent deformity, 
a rebuke to distortion, an inspiration and guide to 
completeness of outer life, and a demonstration 
that Christian character may come to its true 
place in the life of the world. 

Selective and exclusive preferences have no 

proper place in the direction of the energies of 

the inner Christian life. Distinct 

specialized char- an( j specialized lines of activity 

acter an Error. * «/ 

are certainly permissible, even nec- 
essary. Division of labour is an imperative fact 
in the multitudinous life of modern times as 
well in Christian service as elsewhere. Special- 



FORMATION OF CHARACTER STATES 321 

ized and predominant labour in Christian service 
is entirely apart from specialized Christian char- 
acter. Such specialization in service by no 
means entails consequent dwarfing or omission 
of any phase of the perfectly poised Christian 
character. Specialization in Christian labour 
means only greater range of activity given to 
some specific and peculiarly endowed powers, but 
no corresponding elimination by neglect of any 
function of the well-rounded Christian charac- 
ter. Every aspect of the outer life of the Chris- 
tian is needed at its best in the world, and to 
deliberately withdraw from the midst of men 
any such force of character, merely because 
preferences and impulses incline against it, is 
an error that needs only intelligent perception 
of the obligatory proportions of the true Chris- 
tian character to make it a positive sin. Christ 
gave the principle of the true balance of Chris- 
tian character in His memorable words : " These 
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the 
other undone." ! 

The purpose, therefore, of this study is to con- 
tribute to the putting of this vision of the per- 
fectly developed Christian charac- 
of states"" ter before the eyes of the Christian 

world as vividly as possible. The 
resort is had to diagram to aid in the attain- 

^Iatt. xxiii. 23. 



322 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

ment of this purpose through graphic appeal to 
the sense of sight. The states of the fully for- 
mulated Christian character will be seen to ar- 
range themselves into three distinct series. It 
is not to be understood that these series have 
any separate fixed chronological order. The 
energies of the inner life spring along all of 
these three lines of action simultaneously. In 
actual character these states are blended and in- 
termingled, mutually contributing to each other 
and each furnishing field for the exercise of the 
others. They are separated and studied apart 
for purposes of analysis. If one of them is 
wanting in the life its absence is at once evident 
in the narrowed range of effect the life produces 
upon the world in which it moves and the at- 
tendant dearth of that richness of the individ- 
ual's spiritual attainments which always follow 
the complete cycle of Christian conduct. These 
series of states, which are to be elaborately con- 
sidered in subsequent chapters, will here be 
given mere preliminary statement. There 
seems to be an order of precedence, in 
thought at least, that should be observed 
in their consideration. The series of states in 
Christian character, in the order in which we 
shall hereafter study them, are designated as the 
personal, the evangelistic, and the sociological 
states. 



FORMATION OF CHARACTER STATES 323 

The personal states of Christian character are 
the states deposited by such conduct as seems to 

have no other uniform object than 
state" Personal to be the spontaneous, personal 

satisfaction of the impulses of the 
inner life, arising from the states and energies 
of Christian experience. They are the states of 
character that would be just as distinctly in 
action were the life completely by itself, apart 
from all other beings capable of corresponding 
response. They are the states, in other words, 
so personal in their nature that they would ex- 
ist independent of all relationships to mankind 
as such. They would be positively in action in 
a life marooned on some otherwise uninhabited 
island of the mid-sea or hopelessly fallen into 
some cliff-locked mountain valley, removed 
from all human contacts whatsoever, having 
only the brutes and fowls with which to mingle ; 
even the very beasts and birds would come to 
recognize, in their inarticulate way, some of the 
elementary aspects of conduct forming these 
states of character. They are, however, given 
added significance and effectiveness in the close 
relationships of human life, while not being de- 
pendent upon those relationships for a reason 
for being. They are the inevitable bloom and 
fruitage of the complete Christian soul any- 
where in the universe ; neither place nor con- 



324 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

dition has power to modify them. Wherever a 
Christian soul exists, charged with the energies 
of a genuine experience, there these states in- 
variably develop under the right direction of 
such energies. They are thus essentially per- 
sonal in that they occur imperatively and 
incessantly because of the necessities of the inner 
life of the person possessing them without any 
regard whatever to environment. 

The evangelistic states of Christian character 

are the states deposited by such conduct as has 

the uniform object of securing the 

(a) The Evangel- salvation of others from sin. If 

istic States. 

there were none to persuade to the 
Christian life and none to induce to higher 
levels of experience and service, not one of 
these states could exist. In a Christian soul 
apart from all other human beings these states 
could never arise, having no field whatsoever 
for action. They are the states that find their 
supreme end in the direct saving spiritual good 
of other souls. They are distinguished by this 
one universal attitude of outreaching towards 
unsaved individuals. They are the soul-win- 
ning states. They are the product of the earliest 
and constant impulses of a vigorous Christian 
experience, those states and energies of the inner 
life that alone find their satisfaction in the un- 
saved soul brought into the highest possible ex- 



FORMATION OF CHARACTER STATES 325 

perience of the saving presence and power of the 
Holy Spirit. By this distinct differentiation 
they stand out in a series by themselves and 
form a striking and potent part of the true 
Christian character. 

The sociological states of Christian character 

are the states deposited by such conduct as has 

the uniform object of securing and 

(3) The sociological maintaining those social conditions 

States. o 

in the world that shall most com- 
pletely conform to the spirit of Christ and pro- 
vide the amplest opportunity for the highest 
discharge of Christian service. If social en- 
vironment were complete, if there were no 
wrongs, cruelties, injustices wrought by organ- 
ized institutions, if there were no impediments 
in the way of righteousness arising from im- 
proper social customs, then none of these states 
would or could occur. But under conditions as 
they are in the world these states inevitably 
arise in genuine Christian character awake to its 
entire cycle of obligations. " When a citizen of 
the kingdom of God is at peace with any sin of 
society, becomes reconciled to any evil habits of 
the community or indifferent to anything incon- 
sistent with the full coming of God's kingdom 
on the earth, he is disloyal to the kingdom." 1 
The ultimate consummation, contemplated in 

•Strong, "The New Era," p. 242. 



326 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

these states, is a purified and transformed social 
order. They deal not with individuals directly, 
but with social institutions and customs. By 
this feature these states, as a series, are dis- 
tinguished from all others and form a very vital 
part of true Christian character. 

From this general view of the states of Chris- 
tian character we will now enter upon a specific 
examination of the three series 
series to be studied of thege states j t enumerated. 

in Detail. *> 

It is hoped that by some such 
method Christian psychology may arrive at a 
measurably satisfactory view in detail of what 
may be ultimately developed into an accredited 
formulation of the outer life of the Christian. 



Explanation of Diagrams of the Outer Life 

Diagrams VI to VIII 

The black line, extending the entire length of the dia- 
gram, marks the division between the area of the psy- 
Line Dividing the chical and the area of the external, the 
inner from Outer inner and the outer life, the former be- 
ing distinguished, by the red colour and 
the latter by the black. Below that dividing line lies 
the psychical area, comprising all that enters into the 
experience as set forth in the earlier diagrams of the in- 
ner life. In the region of subconsciousness, at the very 
origin of all, is the action of the Holy Spirit ; just above, 
arising from that action, are the subcon- 

Inner Life Be- . , . *. . , j i i_-r 

low Line. scious psychical states ; and above these, 

in the region of consciousness, are the 
conscious psychical states. These all constitute together 
the area of efficient causes underlying the outer life of 
the Christian. 

The projection of the action of these causes into the 
area of the external is shown by the red line extending 
from below across and above the divid- 
L^e ing black line and leading to their effects 

in tangible conduct. That conduct, an- 
alyzed, then appears grouped into separate clusters of 
kindred action, beneath each of which is shown the state 
of Christian character deposited by it in the mind of the 
observing world. 



327 



Ill 

THE PEKSONAL STATES 

(See Diagram VI) 

The entire life of the typical Christian is 
homogeneous. It is made up of exact corre- 
lates. The outer states of charac- 

All Christian States ^ are ag muc h a p ar t f that life 

Homogeneous. A 

as the inner states of experience ; 
these two groups of states, the outer and the in- 
ner, are perfect correlates to each other. Any 
break in that correlation is an imperfection in 
the life. That life is continuous whichever way 
you move : whether you begin with the states 
of character and move inward, or with the states 
of experience and move outward. The corre- 
spondence between states in these two areas is 
ever uniform and unbroken when the life is 
normal. 

The natural movement, however, is from 
within outward. The cause produces the effect 

here as elsewhere. The way to 

Movement from CQme upon ^q J effect | g t f J_ 

Cause to Effect. * 

low along the causal pathway un- 
til the effect appears. Our task in hand is to 
find the outer states of character. Our course 

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THE PERSONAL STATES 329 

is to follow up the movement of the psychical 
life as it brings its energies to bear in the pro- 
duction of conduct, the volitional acts of the 
outer life. Those volitional acts must bear an 
inexorable conformity to the states from which 
they spring, else there is a fatal break in the 
continuity. " We are His workmanship, created 
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God 
hath before ordained that we should walk in 
them." f What is this outer " walk " of " good 
works ' " ordained " of God as the conduct that 
shall correlate with the life " created in Christ 
Jesus"? We shall aim to formulate a state- 
ment of that conduct that in the delineation of 
Scripture 2 and in the consistency of things 
necessarily flows from the inner life and forms 
the personal states of Christian character. 

The act of prayer, if not the very first, is at 
least one of the very first of the products of 
Christian experience. The heart 
conduct : Prayer, breaks out in praise and com- 
munion upon its very entrance 
into the glad new life. Christ, as the supreme 
exemplar of that life, fixes the place of prayer 
in it : " He went out into a mountain to pray 
and continued all night in prayer to God." 3 
Prayer, as an act of conduct, is not as open to 
observation as many another. The act is pe- 

1 Eph. ii. 10. » 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. 8 Luke vi. 12. 



330 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

culiarly sacred and more often done in retire- 
ment. Yet when prayer becomes a positive 
part of the conduct it makes itself known in 
numerous ways to all who observe the life. 1 
" In Christian prayer we find the unseen sources 
of Christian character. The power shown in holy 
living is power gained in the closet. ' ' 2 The spirit- 
ual child of God instinctively and necessarily 
maintains undisguised and constant communion 
with the divine Father. 3 Prayer becomes as 
spontaneous as prattle to a babe in mother's arms. 
A thoroughgoing Christian experience sends 
a soul unerringly and eagerly to the Bible. The 

Word of God becomes an un- 
Bibie study. dreamed-of delight to the heart. 4 

New visions of meaning, new 
flavour of sweetness spring out of it. The more 
pronounced the experience the more persistent 
and penetrating the study of the Bible. The 
heavenly Father makes plain His will and love 
therein ; the Holy Spirit pours into the life 
floods of light through that channel. 5 Chris- 
tian experience can only be maintained in vital 
vigour by constant and consuming contact with 
Scripture. 6 The psychical impulses and crav- 
ings of the saved life normally give rise in con- 

1 Matt. vi. 6. 2 Batten, " The New Citizenship," p. 95. 

3 1 Thess. v. 17 ; Eom. xii. 12. 4 Jer. xv. 16 ; John vi. 63. 

5 2 Peter i. 19. 6 James i. 21 ; Col. iii. 16. 



THE PERSONAL STATES 331 

duct to an eager study of the Bible. Where 
this is wanting something is spurious. 

Where God's children gather for praise and 
communion in devotional things there the real 
child of God finds a congenial and 
worship. exhilarating atmosphere. 1 The liv- 

ing Christian resorts thither on 
every possible occasion. The life in the soul 
demands a presence in the place. The act of 
worship, whenever possible in companionship 
with the people of God, is a phase of conduct to 
which every normal tendency of the genuine 
inner life impells. 2 The observing world regu- 
larly finds the healthy experimental Christian 
in the place of worship. This attendance is not 
a matter of caprice ; it is not an item of con- 
venience. It is a matter of positive inviolable 
principle. 3 It arises irrepressibly from the im- 
perious psychic impulsions of the inner life of 
the real follower of Christ. 4 It enters inevi- 
tably into his conduct. 

Such conduct, by its continuous repetition 
without material variation, gives rise, in the 

minds Of all Who See it, tO a COn- 
State of Character: -i. i • i i«i ir» 

Devoutness. elusion which constitutes a defi- 

nite state of character. From such 
conduct, the impression that the life producing 

1 Matt, xviii. 20. 3 Psa. lxxxiv. 2, 10. 8 Heb. x. 24, 25. 

4 Luke iv. 16. 



332 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

it is clearly devout is unavoidable. The ex- 
pectancy is at once established that wherever 
seen that life will always prove itself of devout 
spirit. That state of character, thus deposited 
in the thought of men, is properly termed de- 
voutness. It is a primary and fundamental 
state of Christian character. That character, to 
be complete, requires this state ; indeed, without 
it such character is fatally defective. To con- 
ceive of a genuinely Christian character without 
devoutness is unthinkable. It may, therefore, 
be set down that in the formulation of the exact 
character, arising from positive Christian ex- 
perience, this state of devoutness must be given 
place. 

A clean soul can alone exert itself in clean ac- 
tions. It is utterly beyond us to conceive of a 
heart in close fellowship with the 

Conduct : tt t m • • 1 •• • j ± 

ciean Actions. Holy Spirit as giving existence to 
unclean deeds. The thought, the 
impulse, the volition must all, to be true to their 
very essence, be set dead against all uncleanness 
of action. Can an orange bloom emit the foul 
stench of carrion ? No more can the cleansed 
spirit, regenerated by divine power and filled 
with the very atmosphere of heaven, emit the 
foul fumes of the debauchee or libertine. 1 There 
is seen, therefore, in the outer life of the Chris- 

l 2 Cor. vi. 17. 



THE PERSONAL STATES 333 

tian, only actions that are clean to their remot- 
est intimation, free from the very appearance of 
evil. 1 So repulsive is uncleanness to the Chris- 
tian soul that it will go far out of its way to 
protect itself from seeming to have had unclean 
motive in action. 2 

Words are as surely expressions of the inner 
life as are deeds. 3 It is, however, observable 

that persons who would spurn un- 
Pure words. cleanness in action are impure of 

word. Impure terms and images 
fall from their lips. The psychical conditions 
of Christian experience that insist on absolute 
cleanness of action equally insist on pureness of 
words. 4 It cannot be that pure thoughts, holy 
affections and divinely generated impulses will 
issue in foul language or salacious imagery how- 
ever chaste the language in which it is couched. 
Ages ago there was caught this vision of clean 
lips as alone consistent with a life in close touch 
with God : " Keep thy tongue from evil, and 
thy lips from speaking guile." 5 The foul story 
gives just ground for the charge of either a de- 
fective heart or a vitiated standard. The words 
of the experimental and instructed Christian are 
everywhere and always pure. No smut falls 
from his lips. His breath is full of heaven's 

! Eph. v. 3. *1 Thess. v. 22. 8 1 Cor. viii. 9, 13. 

4 Eph. iv. 29. 6 Paa. xxxiv. 13. 



334 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

ozone. His exhalations are from the presence 
of the Spirit. 1 

This conduct having come to be known as the 
confirmed course of the life, a fixed general im- 
pression takes possession of all 

State of Character : i 1 ,i -!•/» ti • it 

Purity. who know the lite. It is a deduc- 

tion from continuous, repeated ob- 
servation. It is the result of uniformity and 
consistency in conduct. The conclusion is 
reached that the life is pure without and within. 
There is deposited another state in the character 
of the Christian. That state of character is con- 
cisely expressed by the word, Purity. From 
the study of all the facts it would seem to be 
beyond question that purity is a state positively 
essential and vital to Christian character. An 
impure Christian character is a misnomer. The 
informed mind revolts from such a conception. 
The state of purity is imperatively demanded in 
the exact formulation of the standard character 
of the Christian. 

One of the transcendant impulses generated in 
the depths of Christian experience is an out- 
reaching benevolence. 2 It is the 
conduct: Need lo f th divine Father trans- 

Sought. 

muted into the love of His child. 
It is an attitude ever on the search for need. It 
gives keenness to the sight and quickness to the 

1 Rev. xiv. 5. 2 1 John iii. 17. 



THE PERSONAL STATES 335 

perception. The faltering step is instantly 
noted ; the line of pain is at once understood ; 
the hidden yearning is clearly sensed. 1 It is the 
act of vigilance ; the soul is seen to be on the 
perpetual hunt. It is constantly seeking for 
conditions of need, not waiting for such need to 
clamorously force itself upon attention. 2 The 
genuine Christian heart carries its nerves of 
sense to others' needs close to the surface where 
it instantly detects the slightest measure of such 
presence. 

This search is not an obtrusive curiosity. It 
is a quest for opportunity. 3 The impulses of a 

soul full of love are seeking vent. 
Need served. When the need is detected it is a 

glad discovery. Waiting energies 
spring into eager service. 4 Need is served to the 
limit of ability. The word of comfort is spoken ; 
unsolicited help is given ; soothing sympathy is 
shown. Even when no distinct need is present 
the upspringing impulses of loving service 
make opportunity to express themselves in 
action. They break out of the life by spontane- 
ous energy. 5 The soul of the Christian must 
exert itself in such service. The professed 
Christian, from whom such deeds are violently 
extracted by the irksome sense of duty, has lost 

1 Phil. ii. 4. *1 Cor. x. 24. »Matt. xxv. 35, 36. 

4 Luke x. 33, 34. B Gal. vi. 2. 



336 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

his claim to the name. Such deeds are to the 
genuine Christian life what the song is to the 
bird, or the bloom to the plant, the imperative 
outcome of the psychical states and energies 
active in the soul. 1 

Springing out of such impulses of loving serv- 
ice, there gathers about the life a diffusive 

atmosphere of cheer. That spirit 
cheer Diffused. of cheer seems to have seized upon 

every avenue of expression of the 
inner life. 2 It beams in smiles from the features. 
It thrills in tones from the voice. It rings in 
genial greetings from the lips. The ripple of 
happy-hearted laughter carries the witchery of 
cheer where the smile cannot reach. It is the 
soul-warming overflow of the abounding love of 
the real Christian heart. 3 It carries sunshine 
wherever it moves. The word of cordial greet- 
ing, the glow of beaming features, the playful 
touch of hand, the genial sally of 'pleasantry, 
even the careful thrust of innocent raillery unite 
to diffuse a glow of inspiriting cheer into a world 
all too full of depression and gloom. The pas- 
sage of such a soul leaves a lingering radiance 
brightening its path long after. 4 

Such conduct can have but one product in the 
minds constituting the observing world. Re- 

1 Gal. vi. 10. 2 Acts xvi. 25. 

8 1 Cor. xiii. 7. 4 Rom. xii. 8. 



THE PERSONAL STATES 337 

peated over and over, and continued through 
sufficient period of time to convince of its uni- 
formity, there is deposited another 

State of Character: gtate Q f c h arac ter. This new State 
Kindness. 

is that of kindness. The judg- 
ment is formed that the Christian spirit is never 
unkind when true to its inner self. Its whole 
outgoing is of the kindliest nature. Gruffness, 
harshness, cruelty are utterly foreign to genuine 
Christian character. Kindness is the invariable 
attitude of the true Christian life to all about it. 
Men count on this state and justly so. The ex- 
pectancy of such a spirit is fully warranted. 
Kindness is one of the personal states that must 
have place in the typical character of the Chris- 
tian. 

Regard for the feeling of another is one of the 
ripest and richest products of grace in the heart. 1 

The soul with such a regard can- 
conduct: not willingly hurt another. Such 

Consideratenesa. o J 

regard inspires to solicitous effort 
for the discovery of sensitiveness. There rises 
from the depths of real Christian experience a 
cautious course of inspection. 2 No pain must be 
caused unless it is necessary ; no neglect, even in 
appearance, must be permitted to occur. There 
is studious search for the harmless way, out of 
consideration for possible feeling that may exist. 3 

1 Matt. vii. 12. 3 1 Cor. viii. 9. 3 Phil. ii. 15. 



338 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

Great care is taken to know just what are the 
conditions. Deepest concern is manifested about 
the possible infliction of injury by an incon- 
siderate act. 1 A purpose of the utmost consider- 
ateness for the feelings of others is evinced by 
this course of extreme caution. 

When once conditions are known conduct is, 
with minute delicacy, adjusted to them. There 
is no sacrifice of principle, no 
Tenderness. vestige of cowardice. Action is, 

however, marked by peculiar ten- 
derness of what is known to be another's feel- 
ing. 2 The words are carefully chosen so as not 
to wound ; the look is thoughtfully controlled so 
as not to give pain ; the deed is tenderly done 
so as to avoid harsh contact or jarring move- 
ment. 3 Everything about action, the whole 
demeanour, is full of the most considerate tender- 
ness. 4 

This course of conduct produces in the 
thought of all about it the impression of gentle- 
ness. By the uniform continuous- 
state of Character : pi ±. 1 1 ■ i j 

Gentleness. n ^ss of such course an established 

state of character is formed. The 
whole life is rated as one full of considerateness 
and tenderness towards others. No other spirit 
is consistent with the Word of God. 5 No other 

1 Eom. xv. 2. 2 Eph. iv. 32. 3 Col. iii. 12, 13. 

4 Matt. xii. 20. 5 2 Tim. ii. 24. 



THE PERSONAL STATES 339 

conduct could source in the loving, tender im- 
pulses generated in the genuine processes of 
Christian experience. We, therefore, place as 
another among the personal states of Christian 
character the state of gentleness. 

One of the most striking effects of Christian 

experience on conduct is the action it inspires 

in the presence of personal wrong. 

Conduct : Wrong n i i» 

ignored. ouch wrong, so tar as any varia- 

tion in the course of action is con- 
cerned, is completely ignored. 1 Not the slightest 
resentment appears in conduct ; neither anger 
nor any bitterness is perceptible in word or act. 
No shadow of a memory of any wrong having 
been done appears in conduct. Such complete 
elimination of resentment in feeling and action 
is the triumph of grace in the Christian soul. 2 
The floods of sweetness from the psychical 
depths instantly neutralize every colour of 
resisting passion. Conduct passes the action 
over as if it never had been. 3 

This conduct, in the face of wrong done, is 

not merely negative in that no retaliation is 

indulged in, but it is also positive 

Good Returned. i n that good is done in return for 

the evil. 4 So dominant are the 

loving energies of the inner life that they 

1 Matt. v. 39, 45. ■ 1 Thess. v. 15. 

8 1 Peter iii. 9. * Rom. xii. 20, 21. 



340 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

inspire the doing of everything feasible in the 
interest of the author of the wrong done. 1 
There is nothing patronizing or pharisaical in 
it. The act is spontaneous, the outgoing of a 
transcendant love that banishes ill-will and 
seeks to bless and benefit the life that would 
do it harm. 2 Never waiting for penitence to be 
manifested, it eagerly pours out its good in 
benevolent actions towards its enemy. 3 

All who witness such a course of action, 
maintained in continuous uniformity, ulti- 
mately place to the credit of 

State of Character : 1-1 i • x i i i i 

Forgiveness. the character another remarkable 

state, that of forgiveness. It is 
a state indicated both by the absence of all 
ill-will harbouring grievance and by the pres- 
ence of an abundant benevolence hinged upon 
no equivalent reciprocity. It absolutely rejects 
all bitterness of spirit or action and maintains 
an utmost beneficence such as divine love can 
alone inspire. It is a state begotten of the Holy 
Spirit and vitally essential in the character of 
the Christian. It must, therefore, be given un- 
questioned place in this series of personal states 
we are undertaking to formulate. 

We now come upon another cluster of conduct 
kindred to, yet clearly distinct from, that seen 
in the state just considered. We are not here 

^latt. v. 44. 2 1 Cor. iv. 12. 3 1 Cor. xiii. 4. 



THE PERSONAL STATES 341 

brought to face personal injury, but the rather 

countless provocations, rasping irritations and 

vexing disappointments that tend 

Conduct: Irritation j • i j • i r 

Resisted< to radical disturbance of equanim- 

ity of spirit. In such environ- 
ment the inner life is seen to give positive resist- 
ance to irritation. 1 Its disturbances can find no 
entrance. 2 There develops a deliberate im- 
perviousness to all such attack. 3 By an under- 
girding of psychical calm, 4 the life seems firmly 
set in an irresponsive obliviousness to these 
irritating annoyances, often so sudden and 
subtle in their occurrence. 5 

This resistance is so complete that not only is 
there no show of passion but there is no dis- 
turbed after-roll as from an en- 
Manner unruffled, counter with psychical storm. 6 
The entire manner moves on un- 
ruffled in its uniform flow. No fretfulness rises 
to the surface ; no peevishness crops out in 
tone or deed ; no flush of subdued anger tinges 
the cheek. The entire exterior of the life main- 
tains its usual demeanour as if no irritation had 
occurred. 7 If any perceptible result appears it 
is an intensified sweetness of bearing, as the 
rudely shaken flower will often throw out a 

1 1 Thesa. v. 14. 2 Rom. xii. 12. "James i. 4. 

4 Isa. xxvi. 3. 6 Luke xxi. 19. ■ 1 Peter ii. 23. 

7 1 Cor. iv. 12, 13. 



342 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

richer perfume, or the crushed affection reveal 
a deeper tenderness. 1 

These distinct phases of conduct bring out a 

definite conclusion in the minds of all who 

observe them. That conclusion 

State of Character : n ,-\ . . /» i • 

Patience. iorms another state of character, 

the state of patience. It is given 
its place by such steady unvarying action that it 
can but be recognized as an established quality 
of the life. The life has made such a record 
of patience, amid all exasperations, that any 
departure from that course gives rise at once to 
surprise and to question if the individual be 
fully himself. It must be recognized that phys- 
ical debility often destroys nervous self-posses- 
sion, and temporary perturbations from the usual 
path of patience may justly be attributed to 
that cause. Patience, however, is universally 
counted on in Christian character as one of the 
states indispensable to its completeness. 

The experience of the Christian is an emanci- 
pation. Impulses that have dominated for evil, 
habits that have held in slavery 

Conduct : Control 1 ■> , , ■> , o rni_ 

ofSelf< have lost their mastery/ I he 

soul now shows itself to be in con- 
trol of the inner and outer life ; the personality, 
by the supports from psychical depths, now ap- 
pears as its own absolute master in conduct. 3 

1 James i. 2-4. a l Cor. ix. 27. 3 1 Thess. iv. 4. 



THE PERSONAL STATES 343 

New vision reveals the real nature of this self- 
mastery. 1 Looks and words and deeds are held 
in just and proper balance. Self, in its passions, 
impulses and caprices, is seen to be under a 
steady hand of restraint and guidance. 2 Spurts 
and outbreaks and disproportionate side issues, 
constantly occurring in uncontrolled life, are 
held in by wise and powerful leash. 3 

The purities within make outward wrong, 
however mitigated in form, to be distinctly 
loathsome. 4 Let once an action 
wroL nencc fr ° m ^e known to be wrong in any de- 
gree, the conduct of the Christian 
heart eliminates it. Living and intelligent 
Christian experience can never consort with 
known wrong in conduct. Participation in ac- 
knowledged evil, even in its most attenuated 
form, is positively incongruous for a soul pro- 
fessing to possess a genuine experimental life. 
Every known wrong, of every possible degree, 
is unequivocably banished from voluntary 
action. 5 Total abstinence from every act of 
recognized wrong is the invariable course to be 
followed with scrupulous care in the outer life 
of the Christian. 6 There is no permissible mod- 
eration in evil for such a life. All such modera- 
tion is participation, a thing never knowingly 

JRom. vii. 25. *1 Cor. vi. 12. •Phil, ii. 13. 

4 Rom. xii. 9. 6 2 Cor. vi. 17. • 1 Thess. v. 22. 



344 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

tolerated in conduct emanating from Christian 
experience. 

On the other hand, immoderation in right 
may be as sinful as moderation in wrong. 1 The 
extremist is always intoxicated 
i^ Right!° n under the disproportionate su- 

premacy of some one impulse ; 
intoxication is always wisdom dethroned. Nor- 
mal Christian experience, instructed in the true 
balance of righteousness, never develops the 
crank. 2 The equipoise of such an experience, 
when given a chance, develops itself in such 
reasonable moderation in action as commands 
the respect of the moral judgment of men. 3 The 
awakened and surcharged impulses of the Chris- 
tian soul, aglow with a living experience of the 
saving power of God, evinces the balanced re- 
straint and direction of the Holy Spirit acting 
in the psychical depths. 4 Whatever the im- 
pulses, preferences or predilections, this sense of 
just balance in the soul of the Christian ever 
maintains the attitude of a just and proportion- 
ate deference in conduct alike to all real obliga- 
tions in life. The conduct of the true Chris- 
tian is marked by a wise and equitable modera- 
tion in all that is right. 5 

From such phases of conduct, perceived to be 

1 2 Sam. vi. 6, 7. 8 Matt. xxii. 21. 3 1 Cor. xiv. 40. 

4 James iii. 17. 6 Phil. iv. 5. 



THE PERSONAL STATES 345 

premeditated and successively repeated until it 

is felt to be no temporary spasm of righteous 

action but the established course 

State of Character : r> n J i l 

Temperance. * coiihrmed conduct, a clear con- 

clusion formulates itself in the 
thought of the observing world, constituting 
another in these personal states of Christian 
character, the state of temperance. It is that 
state that protects the life from distortions and 
excrescences. It is no repression of zeal ; it is 
no extinguishment of visions. It is only the 
even balance of wisdom from above. It never 
permits the soul to be intemperate in any ac- 
tion. It prevents impulse from running into 
excesses ; it is the balance-wheel of the charac- 
ter. 1 Its right to a place in the formulation of 
the personal states of Christian character can 
never be questioned. 

A distinct phase of Christian conduct is an 

unwavering loyalty to righteousness. 2 Action 

is uncompromisingly held to what 

conduct : Loyalty jg understood to be the justand 

to Righteousness. <J 

righteous course. 3 The psychical 
attitude is utterly incapable of conforming itself 
to anything that is known to be wrong and, so 
long as the psychical conditions of genuine 
Christian experience remain intact, there is in 
every action of the Christian life the unques- 

1 Eph. v. 15. 9 Matt. vi. 33. 8 Acts xx. 24. 



346 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

tionable spirit of absolute fidelity to what is seen 
to be right. Sacrifice is unhesitatingly made, 1 
strenuous effort is courageously undertaken, 2 
sure defeat is unshrinkingly faced if the course 
be an undoubtedly righteous one. 3 Such loyalty 
is indelibly stamped upon every act of all con- 
duct sourcing in a present and potent Christian 
experience. 

Action that springs from the deep and steady 
impulses of the Christian soul is perfectly 
harmonious with itself. It never 
consistency. contradicts itself; it is not one 

thing to-day and another to- 
morrow. 4 Allowing only for the coming of new 
light and the consequent modification of convic- 
tions of right, there is absolute consistency in 
the conduct. 5 It always holds together ; each 
act is a part of a united whole. The springs of 
action being uniform, the subsequent conduct 
must be consistent. 6 Every deed, having a 
moral quality, exactly dovetails with every 
other such. The same spirit and purpose run 
through all. A persistent consistency is evident 
in the entire range of conduct. 

In all those relations in life where dependence 
on the word or act of another appears, the con- 
duct of the Christian is found to be positively 

1 Matt. v. 30. 8 Phil. iv. 12, 13. s Acts xxi. 13. 

* Phil. i. 27. 6 1 Cor. xv. 58. • Gal. v. 25. 



THE PERSONAL STATES 347 

reliable. 1 The heart that is truly the child of 

God may be depended upon in all his relations. 1 

His word, once given, is inviolable 

Reliability. if it is within the range of possi- 

bility to make it good. If it is 
beyond human power to fill the agreement to 
the letter, then rectification is made as speedily 
and as completely as possible. There is no 
equivocation, no evasion, no repudiation. 3 Such 
a thing as unreliability is abhorrent to the 
sincere Christian heart. It is absolutely incom- 
patible with the inner life in which has been 
wrought the psychical processes of valid Chris- 
tian experience. 4 All human purpose is liable 
to failure in execution ; but reliability of intent 
and effort is without exception in the conduct of 
the Christian life. 5 

From such conduct, continued through a 
period of acquaintance, another state of char- 
acter claims our recognition. It is 

State of Character : n in j v j_-l 

integrity. we ll defined by the term, in- 

tegrity. The whole life is one ; in 
all its conduct it is true to that oneness. It is 
faithful to itself, to its record, to all its fellows 
everywhere and always. The observing world 
is compelled to make note of the fact. There is 
deposited deep in the general consciousness an 

1 2 Cor. viii. 21. * Eph. iv. 25. 8 Col. iii. 9. 

4 Titua ii. 10. • 1 Peter ii. 12. 



348 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

expectancy of perfect integrity in the life of 
that person. Christian character without this 
trait is devoid of all power ; the absence of in- 
tegrity is the paralysis of the life of the Chris- 
tian. In the construction of the typical Chris- 
tian character, containing the states positively 
essential to its completeness, among the personal 
states entering therein integrity must be given 
emphatic place. 

The touch of positive Christian experience 
upon the springs of action is exceedingly quick- 
ening. 1 It banishes all inertness 
conduct: Activity, from the life. Energy is all astir 
and at its best. 2 Time is given 
new sacredness. 3 It is as if some unseen con- 
nection had been made with a new reserve of 
power. Idleness becomes unbearable and shift- 
lessness a sin. 4 Life takes on new purpose and 
scope, and this activity becomes their expression. 
Laziness and genuine Christian life are utterly 
incompatible. 5 Christian powers are so charged 
with psychical energy that they must be cease- 
lessly and profitably employed. 6 Industry 
springs inevitably from Christian life in the 
soul. 7 Mistakes may be made in the direction of 
that activity, but in the measure of the energy 

1 Eph. iv. 28. 8 Isa. xl. 31. 3 Eph. v. 16. 

4 2 Theas. iii. 11, 12. 6 Matt. xxv. 29, 30. « John v. 17. 

7 lTim. v. 8. 



THE PERSONAL STATES 349 

there is no lack. The soul is perpetually charged 
with divine energy ; the result is revulsion from 
all inaction. 1 

This activity is not the stirring of an aimless 
restlessness. There comes an impulse of pro- 
gressiveness upon the life. 2 There 
progressiveness. j s insatiable demand for improve- 
ment. The yearning is ceaselessly 
for larger results. 3 Conduct reaches out for 
wider ranges and sets itself for greater achieve- 
ments. Frivolousness becomes insipid, con- 
temptible. An ever-ascending mark is the goal 
of all endeavour. 4 Every act is felt to be under 
the watchful eye of a loving Father and must 
be the best possible. God's work is being done, 
and the greatest in measure and most superior 
in quality is none too good for Him. 5 Every 
day seeks to outdo its predecessor ; every act 
strives to outstrip its antecedent. The dull 
monotony of repeated achievement is irksome 
and full of chagrin. Christian conduct climbs 
ceaselessly upwards evincing an ever-ascending 
progressiveness. 6 

Such activity and progressiveness perceived 
continuously in the conduct, there is produced 
in the mind of all the impression of another 
and final state among the personal states of 

1 Phil. ii. 13. 8 1 Cor. xii. 31. 8 1 Cor. xiv. 12. 

« Phil. iii. 13, 14. 8 Col. iii. 23, 24. 6 Heb. xiii. 21. 



350 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

Christian character. We have chosen to call it 

the state of ambition. It is the state of activity 

for better things. It seeks the 

state of character: verv b es t re sults in present fields ; 

Ambition. •/ r i 

it ever seeks entry into the 
largest accessible fields. It takes such larger 
fields, opened in the providence of God, to be 
calls of God to higher service. It enters them 
eagerly that greater things may be done for God 
and man. It holds nothing of the greed of self- 
seeking. It is the state of a life longing to be 
where it can be most used in doing the best and 
largest things. Among the personal states of 
Christian character ample place must be given 
to all such ambition. 



IV 

THE EVANGELISTIC STATES 
(See Diagram VII) 

The personal states of Christian character 

are elementary and fundamental to all others. 

They contain the rudiments of all 

personal states after developments in character. 

Elementary. A 

Later states are constructed by 
their application to the environments of the 
life of the Christian. It is of the very nature 
of that life to apply itself to the uplift of its en- 
tire environment. " Environment itself rises 
with every evolution of any form of life." 1 
States resultant from such application are, how- 
ever, distinctly differentiated from the personal 
states and are only to be intelligently treated as 
grouped in series by themselves. These group- 
ings occur about the two great relationships of 
the Christian : that to human souls in their in- 
dividual capacity, and that to human society in 

its organic capacity. These two 

Dlrurative ic States g rou pi n g s comprise the remaining 

series of states, the evangelistic 

states and the sociological states, which we 

1 Drammond, " The Ascent of Man," p. 326. 
351 



352 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

shall examine in this chapter and the one fol- 
lowing. We are now to study in detail the 
evangelistic states of Christian character. In 
method we shall pursue the same course as in 
the preceding chapter, passing from conduct to 
the state of character deposited thereby. 

No product of the psychical processes of per- 
sonal salvation from sin is more direct or pro- 
nounced than the solicitous atti- 

for n so U uu: Anxiety tude of anxiet y towards all souls 
still under the guilt and power of 
sin. Christ Himself sets the standard for such 
anxious concern for the unsaved in His tearful 
lament over Jerusalem and its rejection of His 
saving overtures. 1 Vital Christian experience 
is ever attended by this anxiety. 2 The conduct 
we are here seeking to portray is perhaps best 
designated by this impulse which is behind it. 3 
This anxiety translates itself into a wide range 
of action very difficult of condensation into any 
single descriptive term. There is the hunger- 
banishing vision of inaction in evangelistic en- 
terprise and the call to prayer for increase of 
labourers in the waiting harvest of souls. 4 
There is initiation and encouragement of move- 
ments for soul-winning. 5 There is often-ex- 
pressed apprehensiveness for the well-being of 

1 Matt, xxiii. 37. 8 Rom. ix. 3; x. 1. 3 Rom. xi. 14. 

4 Luke x. 2. 5 James v. 20 ; Aots xx. 31. 



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THE EVANGELISTIC BTAT1 

sin-blighted life. The whole manner ifl one of 
intense and constant burden of heart for bouIb 
without God's transforming presenoe. 1 There is 

urging to endeavour for the rescue of souls l'roin 
the wretchedness and ruin ofsin.' 

This anxiety is not an indefinite concern ex- 
hausting itself in platitudes and exhortations, 

taking into its embrace, by whole- 
specific concern. sa ] e ^ the entire mass of hlllllilll 
beings without God and His 
gracious work. It begets conduct of yet more 
specific sort. There is concern for the separate 
individual soul. 3 Indeed this specialization is 
the most positive type of such conduct. 4 There 
is repeated mention of distinct persons and con- 
ference with sympathetic spirits in their in- 
terest. 5 This concentration of concern upon 
particular souls is manifest in such convergence 
of saving effort upon those persons as puts 
about them the conditions designed to win 
them to Christ if possible. 6 

None can witness such conduct, sustained in 
uniform course, w r ithout receiving an impres- 
sion that that life is possessed of 

State of Character : v* j • n l* *i. J r 

solicitude. an abiding state of solicitude lor 

souls. It is one of the indis- 
pensable states of rightly developed Christian 

1 Rom. ix. 2. ■ Matt. ix. 37, 38. 3 John i. 41, 48, 

4 Matt. iv. 19. 5 Philemon 10. •! Cor. ix. 20-2'J. 



354 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

character. It springs inevitably from the 
depths of a thoroughgoing experience of the 
work of the Holy Spirit in personal salvation. 
That experience without the presence of such 
solicitude would be fatally defective, a share in 
gospel salvation being only assured on the evinc- 
ing of this practical solicitude in conduct. 1 " In 
the popular conception personal Christian work 
is not a necessary part of Christian living. The 
time ought to come, and I believe is coming, 
when it will be deemed as essential to a Chris- 
tian life as common honesty." 2 The processes 
of saving grace, operative in the psychical depths, 
produce such active anxiety and concern for the 
salvation of others as irresistibly deposit this 
state of solicitude in the mind of an observing 
world. In the formulation of the essential 
states of Christian character solicitude must 
undeniably be given place as the initial state in 
the evangelistic series. 

All saving effort of the true Christian is 

marked by an all-pervasive air of humility. 

The magnitude of the soul-saving 

Conduct : Inability , 1 • . n i . j , n 

conceded. task is too well understood to allow 

of a self-reliant manner. The con- 
sciousness of personal experience is too full of 
the evidences of the sole adequacy of divine 
power in the saving process to permit of any- 

1 1 Cor. ix. 23. 2 Strong, " The New Era," p. 259. 



THE EVANGELI8TIC STATES 355 

thing else than the total elimination of all con- 
it from mere human effort. Inadequacy of 
human power is spontaneously acknowledged in 
every move. 1 The most gifted human endeav- 
our is ever tempered by a manifest realization 
of utter powerlessness in itself. 2 The inevitable 
conduct, alone consistent with the inner life of 
the experimental Christian, is a humble con- 
cession of the utter inadequacy of mere human 
ability however earnest, energetic or brilliant. 3 

This manifestation of inadequacy is consist- 
ently accompanied by an open resort to God. 4 
He is the only sufficient Helper 
Resort to God. i n such a momentous undertaking 
as that to effect the cleansing and 
transformation of a sinful human soul. The 
besieging call is upon God in both private and 
public prayer. The strenuous endeavour is to 
get into perfect conjunction with God so as to 
make the infinite powers of the divine Being 
available in accomplishing the desired end. 5 
Such adjustment to the divine will becomes a 
basis of direct and effective petition to the heart 
of God. Such resort to God in audible and 
eager cry for His help springs invariably from a 
soul aglow with the Christlike love, begotten 
alone of genuine Christian experience. 6 

1 2 Cor. ii. 16. 2 John xv. 5. s 2 Cor. iii. 5. 

4 Luke x. 2. 6 2 Theas. iii. 1 ; Eph. vi. 19. • Roin. x. 1. 



356 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

Soul-saving is distinctly God's work ; man's 
part is merely contributive. 1 The believing 
heart is, therefore, impelled to a 
Reliance upon God. bold reliance upon the divine co- 
operation in its doing. 2 Conduct 
takes on an assurance, a fearless dependence 
upon the effectiveness of this divine joint-action. 
The spirit becomes trustful, expectant, jubilant, 
even in the face of difficulties and apparent 
failures. 3 The outer expressions of the inner 
reliance are numerous. By word and act un- 
faltering dependence on the effectiveness of the 
divine work, for which there is such urgent 
asking and believing, is given abundant demon- 
stration. 4 There is eager venture, there is glad- 
some courage, there is confident challenge, all 
evincing a conquering reliance on God. 

Such a course of conduct, seen to be continu- 
ous in the life, produces in the mind of all who 
witness it the impression of a defi- 
state of character: nit d es t a blished state of char- 

Intercession. 

acter. It may well be designated 
as the state of intercession. It is the Christian 
soul linking itself with the divine Personality 
to effect the salvation of another. It is the in- 
tercessory seizure and employment of the divine 
energies in the determined effort to rescue a soul 

1 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7. s 1 Tim. iv. 10. 

3 Acts xxviii. 30, 31. 4 Acts iv. 31. 



THE EVANGELISTIC STATES 357 

lost in sin. It is the pleading intercession of a 
saved heart that, by any means possible and 
feasible with God, salvation may reach one or 
many. It is the " burden for souls " that the 
experience of the Christian world has shown is 
a vital part in all saving service. Christian 
character without it is a phlegmatic, indifferent 
thing. It has been said, no doubt with a great 
measure of lamentable truth, that " Probably 
not one out of ten professing Christians accepts 
a personal responsibility for certain ones and 
makes them the object of special prayer and ef- 
fort." ! Notwithstanding this, any exact formu- 
lation of Christian character must place fore- 
most among its evangelistic states this vital state 
of intercession. 

The great personal goal of Christian en- 
deavour is the individual unsaved life. 2 The 
entire being, stirred by the vitality 

sear^for Hold °^ a divine experience, is on the 
hunt for a hold upon the life in 
sin. It is not seeking congenial companionship. 
Its primary search is for a foothold by the side 
of the life that needs it most, that is farthest 
from God. 3 It is positively incongruous for the 
Christian soul, professing a living experience of 
personal salvation and fellowship with the Holy 

Strong, "The New Era," p. 259. 

2 John xvii. 18; Luke xix. 10. * 1 Cor. ix. 19. 



358 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

Spirit, to be content with the easy, delightful 
comradeship of souls in condition like unto its 
own. 1 If the heart be right the lure of the im- 
perilled is resistless. 2 Its entire conduct is per- 
meated with a tireless alertness to get into touch 
with unsaved ones. 3 It is forever after a chance 
to get into the lives of the sinful, the lives that 
are without God and without hope in the world. 4 
It seizes and clings to such fellowships with an 
eager joy. And this is not so because there is 
selfish gratification in such relations, but solely 
because a chance is found therein to get hold 
upon a life that needs God. 5 

Foothold, by such vigilance, having once been 
gained at the side of an unsaved life, then con- 
duct takes on another phase. Un- 
Forging of Links, obtrusive but deliberate effort is 
now made to form and strengthen 
the links that bind the two lives together. 6 Con- 
genialities are cultivated; friendship is cemented; 
confidences are exchanged; attractions are in- 
tensified ; kindnesses are multiplied ; not a 
single factor that can enter into these links, 
binding the two lives together, is neglected. 
The stronger the bands that tie the unsaved life 
to the Christian heart the more powerful the 
hold that heart has upon such life. 7 The evan- 

1 Matt, xviii. 12. 2 John iv. 34. 3 John iv. 7. 4 Luke v. 29-32. 
6 Rom. xv. 1,2. 6 1 Cor. x. 33. 7 1 Cor. ix. 20, 21. 



THE EVANGELISTIC STATES 359 

gelistic passion develops an all-mastering adhe- 
sion of comradeship. The Christian lieart makes 
itself necessary to the life it would save. 1 There 
is no insincerity in such action ; it is instinct 
with the sublimest motive. 2 A so-called Chris- 
tian life void of this adhesive, evangelistic pas- 
sion is an empty delusion. 3 Such conspiracy of 
attachment is the inevitable outgrowth of a gen- 
uine work of experimental salvation in the 
depths of the psychical being. 

Conduct also proceeds to manipulate these 
links thus carefully forged. The sinful life, laid 

open by the intimacies of this 
chr£t ng Towards good-fellowship, is cautiously made 

to feel its need. Its mistakes and 
deficiencies are subtilely brought into view. 
Discontent with sinful conditions is delicately 
engendered. 4 The superiorities of the Christian 
life are adroitly pushed into prominence. The 
charm of Christ is imperceptibly diffused through 
the mutual atmosphere of the intimacy. 5 The 
links of attachment are gently but steadily 
strained to draw the wayward life to the Sa- 
viour. 6 Every relationship is made tributary to 
this heavenly task. 7 Every other use of the ties 
between these lives seems selfish, trivial and 
ignoble beside this one supreme consecration of 

1 2 Cor. xii. 16. 2 1 Cor. ix. 22. 3 John xv. 2. 

4 1 Peter iii. 1. 6 Col. i. 27. 6 1 Peter ii. 12. 1 Matt. iv. 19. 



360 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

friendship to the achievement of the salvation 
of the soul away from God. 1 This all-pervasive 
pull towards Christ is an inevitable quality of 
the conduct of the heart truly Christian. The 
professed Christian that can live without it may 
well question the present reality of his ex- 
perience. 2 

By such sustained action there is irresistibly 

precipitated in the perceiving mind of men an 

estimate of the life so conducting 

State of Character : ftg^f rj^ estimate formg ftn _ 

Influence. 

other state of character which, 
among these evangelistic states, may appropri- 
ately be termed the state of influence. It is the 
state in which all the unspoken outgoings of the 
life are seen to have one permanent trend and 
that to bring all under its touch to the life saved 
through Christ. Any act subversive of this 
trend would be a surprise. Any reversal of this 
course would be a shock and a revolution in 
character. Such a current in conduct, seeking 
to bear all about it to Christ, is an indisputable 
quality of all normal, full-vigoured Christian 
life. In the scientific formulation of the evan- 
gelistic states of Christian character such in- 
fluence must be given an important place. 

The effort to lead a soul into the experience of 
the Christian takes shape in verbal and oral ex- 

1 Matt. v. 16. 2 John xv. 2. 



THE EVANGELISTIC STATES 361 

pression. 1 Indirect conduct is an excellent 
vehicle of the impulse so far as it goes ; but it is 
very inadequate. The evangel- 
conduct-, invita- jgtio passion clamours for more 

tion to Accept. * 

definite expression. 2 All barriers 
of diffidence and worldly-wise discretion are 
thrust aside and heart speaks to heart by the 
living voice. 3 Forced from Christ's lips by the 
volcanic forces of a burning love for suffering 
souls the invitation to accept the Water of Life 
He brings fixes the type for His every Spirit- 
filled follower. 4 Through a soul, ceaselessly 
undergoing the transformations and inspirations 
of applied divine energy, the invitations to ac- 
cept the overtures of heavenly grace force their 
way into communication and repetition over and 
over again. It is the spontaneous message of 
saved life to lost souls. 5 Seas are no hindrance, 
mountains no barriers. Distance nor race make 
any difference. Degradation and prejudices form 
no obstacles. Wherever the lost soul may be and 
whatever its state the message of invitation to ac- 
cept Christ never pauses in its search until the last 
unsaved one has heard its glorious news. 6 As 
spontaneously as birds sing or suns shine the Chris- 
tian heart passes on the gospel invitation from 
eager lips to all sin-blighted lives everywhere. 

1 John i. 46. 8 Rev. xxii. 17. s Luke xiv. 17. * John vii. 37. 
6 Mark xvi. 15. 6 Luke xv. 4 ; Matt, xxviii. 19. 



362 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

However exalted the privilege of being the 

bearer of such a message the evangelistic passion 

of the experimental life is far from 

pleading to satisfied with the mere function of 

Receive. 

a carrier. Such a soul must also 
become an advocate. Christian conduct irre- 
pressibly springs into the act of pleading with 
others to receive Christ. It takes on the 
energetic function of persuasion. 1 All the force 
of beseeching personality is put behind the in- 
vitation. All that has been hitherto confined 
within an unphrased influence or an uttered in- 
vitation is now brought out in definite expres- 
sion of urgent exhortation. 2 Every possible 
motive is called into action ; every inciting fact 
is pressed into service ; every contributive emo- 
tion is rallied to the effort ; every impelling 
thought is summoned to the struggle. 3 The 
torpidity of a sin-paralyzed soul must be over- 
come. 4 The pleading of heart, aglow with evan- 
gelistic ardour, sets itself to prevail in persuad- 
ing to receive the salvation of Christ. Such 
spirit of pleading is the very essence of the 
evangelistic passion. 5 

This kind of conduct can have but one result 
upon the minds of all among whom it occurs. 
It deposits in them another state of Christian 

1 2 Cor. v. 20. * Titus ii. 15. 3 Luke xiv. 23. 

* 2 Tim. iv. 2-4. 6 Acts xx. 31. 



THE EVANGELISTIC STATES 3G3 

character. It is the state of appeal. It becomes 

a settled conclusion that there is in that soul a 

confirmed attitude of appeal. At 

State of Character : . • 1 i 1 • a • 

Appeal> timely moments, when conditions 

are ripe, the soul leaps out in an on- 
slaught of entreaty. Invitation is pressed and 
, persuasion is applied. All the power of the in- 
dividuality is concentrated to prevail upon the 
life to accept the invitation and receive the 
Saviour. This state of appeal is vital to the 
complete character of the true Christian. The 
character that lacks it is vitally deficient ; it ex- 
poses a ruinous lack in the psychical life, the 
underlying experimental processes. Any full 
and exact formulation of Christian character 
must make place among its evangelistic states 
for this indispensable state of appeal. 

To one who has by experience come to know 
the real worth of a genuine work of saving 
grace in the soul, such salvation 
sa^tion Exalted, becomes invaluable. All other 
possessions for oneself, or acquire- 
ment for another, are shown to be regarded as 
trifling in comparison with it. 1 All conduct at 
once aligns itself with this imperious estimate. 2 
The words of the lips constantly declare it. 
Tireless effort to effect it forever proclaims its 
incomparable superiority. 3 When the salvation 

1 Matt. vi. 23. • Matt. xiii. 46, 47. 3 Acts xj. 24. 



364: STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

of a soul is involved, all other temporal and 
material concerns are, wherever at all practi- 
cable, set promptly aside until the higher task 
is done. 1 Any treatment of this saving process 
as if it were of inferior importance is positively 
incompatible with the radical and profound ex- 
periences of the typical inner life of the Chris- 
tian. That salvation, including all it stands for 
in the spiritual life, is given precedence in all 
action as the one thing worth living for in all 
the range of possible acquirement ; it is exalted 
to the supreme place of value and importance. 2 
It is practically endorsed as bearing heaven's 
stamp of highest worth. 3 

In the endeavour to effect the salvation of 

others the thought of cost has no place. So 

measureless is the valuation of a 

f T ost soul's salvation that its secure- 

uncounted. 

ment is eagerly sought with 
scarcely any respect to necessitated expenditure. 
The enthralling vision of a soul saved seems to 
make oblivious to any price paid. 4 The ardent 
soul saver, in the parlance of the financial world, 
is a reckless plunger with respect to the ex- 
haustion of resources. The controlling sense of 
inferior values seems to have been paralyzed. 5 
All other worths are completely submerged in 

1 1 Cor. x. 33. 2 Phil. iii. 13, 14. 8 Luke xv. 7. 

4 Dan. xii. 3. 6 Acts xxi. 13. 



THE EVANGELISTIC STATES 3G5 

the endless and infinite worth of a human soul. 
Thus in a life aglow with the evangelistic pas- 
sion, begotten of a genuine Christian experience, 
cost is seen to be completely ignored when suc- 
cess in reaching a soul is at stake. 1 

At its normal intensity the evangelistic im- 
pulse, arising from the psychical conditions pres- 
ent in the complete experience of 
ah to save. the Christian life, not only feels 

no recoil from the surrender of 
physical conveniences or possessions but also 
tosses itself, its very being and hopes, into the 
surrender. 2 When the eternal salvation of 
human beings is in the balance there is nothing 
the real Christian soul withholds in order to 
save. The very essence of the saving passion of 
Christ Himself is evinced in the conduct of the 
truly experimental disciple. 3 All he is, all he 
has, all he hopes to be, all this is unreservedly 
and joyously poured out in his endeavour to 
save men and bring them into the possession of 
the life and power of God. 4 Time, energy, 
property, comfort, even life itself, all are given 
that the unsaved may be brought to Christ. 
The world is girdled in missionary devotion ; 
the foulest haunts of abandoned men are entered 
in Christly service ; nothing stops the soul 

1 2 Cor. xii. 15. « Rom. ix. 3. 

3 Eph. v. 2. 4 1 Theas. ii. 8. 



366 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

under the call of the lost. Such all-inclusive 
abandon in positive action is one of the culmina- 
tions in conduct of the potent psychical proc- 
esses operative in Christian experience. 

Men see this conduct steadily persisted in, 

totally devoid of all selfish gain, throbbing with 

a yearning, overmastering love, 

State of Character : i ii i • , t 

sacrifice. and they are driven to a dis- 

tinct conclusion in their thought. 
There is deposited another and final state of 
Christian character, that of unhesitating and 
unbounded sacrifice. It is the state of deliber- 
ate forfeiture of values, otherwise prized, for 
the securement of spiritual salvation to those 
without it. It is a confirmed attitude of life so 
demonstrably established that it is counted on 
with unfaltering expectancy. It has built itself 
up as an essential part of all full-orbed Christian 
life. Without it such life is defective and de- 
formed, being deficient in one of its crowning 
states. Such a deficiency in Christian character 
is in fact impossible where there is the present 
existence of a living experience of saving grace 
in the inner life properly instructed as to its 
legitimate fruitage in conduct. The exact 
scientific formulation of Christian character can- 
not fail, if faithful to the facts, to crown the 
evangelistic states with this most effective of 
them all, the state of sacrifice to save. 



V 

THE SOCIOLOGICAL STATES 

(See Diagram VIII) 

The impulses of Christian experience form 

still another channel of exit in conduct. The 

soul of the Christian, truly begot- 

c^nducf 081 ^ en a § a ^ n °f God, properly led in 

the evolution of conduct, finds it 
impossible to be oblivious of and inactive 
towards the unjust and harmful conditions 
prevalent about it. " Flight from the world 
and flight from human relations were no legiti- 
mate growth from the spirit of Christ." 1 While 
living in an imperfect and sinful environment, 
as an inherent resistance to existing dominant 
wrong, as a means of a better life for himself, as 
an aid to more effectively inducing others to 
lead the life of the Christian, the normal Chris- 
tian is irresistibly crowded into such conduct as 
issues in a series of sociological states of Chris- 
tian character. They are the states that take 
shape from such conduct as has for its supreme 

1 King, "Reconstruction in Theology," p. 178. 

367 



368 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

object the relief and final remedy of such social 
conditions as are stimulative of the sinful life, 
repressive of the saved life, obstructive of effort 
for Christian manhood. They arise as normally 
and inevitably as any of the states 
origin in ex- f Christian character from the 

penence. 

profound processes of the psy- 
chical life wrought in genuine Christian expe- 
rience, underlying all true Christian person- 
ality. " The chief contribution of Christ to the 
social problem is the production of spiritual per- 
sonality. In the Christian character He pro- 
vides that element of social progress of which 
the world stands most in need." * Any so- 
called Christian experience that can leave un- 
touched the baleful sociological conditions of 
the world is either fatally defective in its own 
constituent elements or as fatally misled in its 
apprehension of the essential elements of its 
conduct. " He who carries the sorrows of the 
race in his heart has entered into the great 
phase of Christ's experience." 2 Any adequate 
psychological formulation of Christian character 
will discover and must make place for such 
conduct as constitutes the sociological states of 
that character. We shall now apply ourselves 
to the study of this conduct and the consequent 

1 Bruce, " The Formation of Christian Character," p. 14. 
2 Mabie, " Life of the Spirit," p. 260. 






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THE SOCIOLOGICAL STATES 369 

character-states deposited by it, using the same 

method as in the two series of such states already 

considered, this series being their 

issues in states of culmination and the completion 

Character. A 

of the states comprising the full- 
orbed Christian character. 

Social wrongs, of every nature and degree, 
and the spirit of the thoroughly saved soul are 

in the uttermost antithesis. 1 In- 
conduct : condem- ve terate antagonism is in the very 

nation of Wrong. ° y 

air of their contact. Silence, on 
the part of the Christian heart, in the midst of 
such wrong is inconceivable to one who knows 
the psychical conditions of the saved being. 
Disapproval of the evil is spontaneous and out- 
spoken. 2 Condemnation of the wrong is un- 
equivocal and its denunciation is unsparing and 
fearless. 3 " Against an easy-going good-natured 
mood, which accepts ' rings ' and ' bosses ' in 
politics as necessary evils and will not fight 
them to the death as deadly enemies of society ; 
which sits content in a social order of injustice 
because it is more comfortable to let things 
alone ; which tolerates low standards, easy 
morals, cheap education and vulgar manners ; 
it is the bounden duty of all right-minded men 
to protest in season and out of season." 4 The 

1 Matt, xxiii. 4. 2 2 Tim. iv. 2. 3 Rom. i. 18. 

4 Mabie, " Life of the Spirit," p. 189. 



370 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

wrong is in itself so reprehensible, its effects on 
the mass of public life are so deplorable that all 
the impulses of the pure and loving soul cry out 
in irrepressible protest against its continuance. 1 
This protest is often a painful cry, sometimes 
stopping nothing short of an outburst of agony, 
arising from deep psychical anguish in the keen 
perception of such wrong as is fully sensed only 
by the heart of the experimental Christian. 2 

The conduct of the Christian towards social 
wrong is not that of mere vocal condemnation, 
however pronounced that may be. 
opposition. The attitude of the personality, 

astir with the psychical energies 
of a living experience, is in all its bearings one 
of ceaseless opposition to every form of prevail- 
ing evil. 3 The polarities of the Christian heart 
and every phase of social wrong are constitu- 
tionally and eternally set against each other. 4 
To the soul, filled with the pure and loving 
presence of the Spirit of God, all social wrong is 
forever repellent. 5 This opposition evinces it- 
self in conduct ; and that conduct is found, if 
under proper guidance, in inveterate antagonism 
to all evil in the social organism. 

A confirmed impression is produced upon the 
mind of men. Such conduct deposits a definite 

1 Isa. i. 16, 17. 2 Luke xix. 41, 42. 3 Matt. xxi. 12, 13. 

4 Aots xiii. 10. 5 Rom. xii. 9. 



THE SOCIOLOGICAL STATES 371 

state of character, the state of established re- 
volt against social wrong. " Once let the con- 
viction take hold that there is no 

State of Character : i , v • j 

Revolt . such thing as necessary and per- 

manent evil, and courage will rise 
to the attack of every evil, however well en- 
trenched." 1 All that is needed is the demon- 
stration that a social condition is definitely 
wrong to make the soul of the real Christian 
anywhere and at all times alive with aggressive 
and unqualified revolt. Quiescence in such a 
presence is impossible ; acquiescence with it 
positively abhorrent. The whole being is tur- 
bulent with a radical movement of revulsion. 
All of the saved energies are aroused to a sturdy 
revolt. All reliable analysis of Christian char- 
acter must place this state of revolt against all 
social wrong in the lead of the sociological states 
of that character. 

The psychical condition most responsive to 

immediate human need is that induced by 

the typical Christian experience. 

Conduct : Help for tt • j_ ii • . 

suffering. However intense the aversion to 

the social wrong, causative of the 
suffering, the revolt against the wrong in no 
way diverts the heart from action in immediate 
help. 2 Conduct, at once and to the limit of its 
abilit}% proceeds to extend help to the suffer- 

1 Strong, " The New Era, " p. 242, 2 Luke x. 37. 



372 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

ing. 1 Hunger is satisfied ; cold is relieved ; 
sickness is ministered unto. 2 Every phase of 
present suffering is given the needed relief. 
Out of the depths of psychical tenderness 
abundant munificence of gift and service is 
poured upon the suffering victims of social 
wrong. 3 The spirit of the Good Samaritan is 
waiting for every wayside sufferer whatever 
may have been the source of the marauding 
brigandage. 4 

Even beyond such help for immediate suffer- 
ing the genuine Christian heart finds field for 
loving service in temporary allevia- 

Work of , • « i • . • • 1 1 

Alleviation. tion of wrong conditions in the 

social life until more thorough- 
going and far-reaching processes can be made 
effective. 5 There is conduct that can mitigate 
the effects of social wrong, that can lessen the 
pains of suffering, that can modify the activity 
of the movement for evil, that can circumscribe 
and emasculate the harmful energies until the 
time comes for their eradication. 6 The Chris- 
tian heart eagerly seizes these opportunities for 
alleviation of the situation. Conduct sets itself 
to achieve any degree of favourable modification 
now attainable in order to secure thereby the 
greatest possible immediate help for the de- 

1 Luke xviii. 22. 2 Matt. xxv. 35, 36. s 1 John iii. 17. 

4 Luke x. 34. 5 Acts ii. 40. ° Rom. xii. 21. 



THE SOCIOLOGICAL STATES 373 

plorable situation. 1 Such conduct comprises a 
sincere endeavour to provide help for suffering 
and alleviation of wrong conditions to the 
utmost possible limit. 2 

Here again we witness the formation of 

another state of character ; it is deposited in 

the mind of an observing public 

stat^of character : ^y foe steady continuance of the 

conduct just indicated. It may be 
designated as the state of relief. It may be, in- 
deed doubtless is, but temporary relief; it may 
seem to be the merest palliative ; it may truly 
be but a sedative that cannot touch the real 
fever ; but it lessens the pain while the real 
remedies are being brought to bear upon the 
deep-lying disease. The true Christian soul, 
everywhere and always, yearns with such a 
spirit of relief. The world of human need comes 
to count upon its quick and liberal response. 
To find, under genuine conditions of need, the 
absence of such response is to receive a shock, a 
painful sense of disappointment and defect. 
This responsive relief is inwrought in the Chris- 
tian life as a vital part of all true Christian 
character. Practical Christian sociology has an 
essential though passing function in Christian 
philanthropy. No accurate formulation of 
Christian character, in the present condition 

1 1 Peter ii. 15. 2 Rom. xii. 2. 



374 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

of the social world, can omit to include in its 
sociological states this state of relief. 

Conduct that springs from the underlying 

depths, where proceeds the work of the Holy 

Spirit in the soul of the Christian, 

conduct-. Location j g never satisfied to be a mere salve 

of Injustice. 

for social wrong. It dresses the 
open sore and soothes the pain only that it may 
apply itself strenuously to the poison that pro- 
duces the sore and the pain. It enters upon a 
relentless hunt, undertaking nothing short of 
the definite location of the injustice that consti- 
tutes the wrong. 1 It traces and probes and 
examines, without fear or favour, to get at all 
unjust persons and procedures. 2 It is not a 
professional or commercial transaction for which 
so much compensation is expected. It is the 
irrepressible benevolent impulse of the Christian 
life on the trail of the foe of social good that that 
foe may be unquestionably located and identified. 3 
This is not a search of mere discovery. De- 
tection here means unhesitating exposure. 
Christian conduct, once having 
Firmness in discovered injustice in its actual 

Exposure. O 

work of social wrong, finds its 
next inevitable line of action to be to uncover 
that injustice to the gaze of the world. 4 This 

1 Joshua vii. 18. 2 Heb. xii. 15, 16. s 1 Peter v, 8. 

4 John viii. 44, 



THE SOCIOLOGICAL STATES 375 

exposure of injustice involves definite phases of 
conduct. There is the pointing out of its pres- 
ence ; x there is the delineation of its nature ; 
there is the pouring in of all possible light 
upon the lairs where the injustice lurks and 
operates. 2 This is unpleasant and disagreeable 
work, but the sincere and spirit-quickened 
Christian counts not his own comfort. The 
behest of the true follower of Christ, who has 
that living Christ in the depths of his subcon- 
scious life, is to stand in the courts of misappro- 
priated temples and cry : " Ye have made it a 
den of thieves;" 3 is to stand in the presence 
of unjust perpetrators of social wrongs and turn 
on the lights of unmerciful identification : 
" Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! " 4 Such 
conduct is the outspoken exposure of all dis- 
covered injustice and no soul, astir with all of 
the elements of true Christian manhood, can re- 
frain from it. 

The consistent conduct of the Christian only 

half appears in the detection and exposure 

of social injustice. Its attitude 

Fidelity in towards such injustice is only com- 

Eradication. o J 

pleted by fidelity in its eradica- 
tion. 5 This means faithfulness in the use of 
every opportunity to do away with the injustice, 

1 Acts xiii. 10. 9 Acts viii. 22. 3 Mark xi. 17. 

4 Matt, xxiii. 14. 6 Luke iii. 13. 



376 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

to rally all kindred forces to extinguish it, to 
free the social conditions of the last vestige of 
its presence. 1 There is no evasion of the mis- 
sion ; there is no depreciation of the issue. The 
task is accepted and a determined struggle for 
the elimination of every phase of social injustice 
is maintained. 2 The conduct of the Christian 
rests nothing short of the utmost possible en- 
deavour to eradicate injustice wherever found in 
the social life of men. 

This is a remarkable grouping of conduct. 
This persistent activity in the location, exposure 
and eradication of injustice pro- 
state of character: d uces i n t ne m i n ds of men who 

Removal. 

observe it the impression of a dis- 
tinct state of character in relation to all social 
injustice, which may be properly termed the 
state of removal. The object upon which all 
the conduct of this entire grouping converges is 
the complete removal of every vestige of social 
injustice. The antagonism between such a soul 
as we are considering, one profoundly astir along 
all lines of Christly activity, and such injustice 
is a condition to be clearly foreseen. The two 
cannot be thrown together in the same social 
sphere without the immediate inauguration of 
this battle for removal. Christ defines this ef- 
fect upon human conduct : " I came not to send 

1 James ii. 9. 2 James v.i 



THE SOCIOLOGICAL STATES 377 

peace but a sword." ! The exact formulation of 
Christian character cannot be made without this 
state of removal standing prominently among 
the sociological states of that character. 

The life of society is largely made up of cus- 
toms. They have sprung up in the past, more 
or less remote, and have been 
cuifomV'Revited. added to and multiplied by suc- 
cessive generations. In many of 
these customs evil is deeply entrenched. Into 
the midst of this mass of customs of varying 
moral quality the soul of the Christian is pro- 
jected. The heart, filled with the positive im- 
pulses of Christian experience, at once passes 
these customs, that have presumed hitherto to 
dictate its action, under unsparing revision. 2 
Their qualities are analyzed, their elements 
scrutinized, their entire composition tested as to 
moral and spiritual effects. When reshaping is 
necessary in order to make them conform to the 
new life it is firmly and tactfully put into ex- 
ecution. The Christian appears as a determinate 
moulder of the customs of society ; he is the 
creator of social forces and not their toy. 3 

Conduct that attempts the revision of social 
customs finds its first task in the elimination of 
the harmful features of such customs. 4 Im- 

^att. x. 34. * Rom. xii. 2. 8 Phil. iv. 8, 9. 

4 1 Peter i, 14, 15. 



378 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

pelled by the compulsions of the inner life, it en- 
gages itself in the exposure of the harmfulness of 
these features. Their injurious na- 
Harm Eliminated. f. ure i s convincingly demonstrated 

until individuals and communities 
are persuaded to eliminate these erroneous ele- 
ments. 1 By word, by agitation, by example this 
work is done. The heart that is genuinely 
Christian cannot but set itself resolutely to stop 
the ruinous work of harmful customs. 2 It would 
be untrue to its inner experience, to the in- 
dwelling Holy Spirit, were it silent and idle in 
such surroundings. 

Christian conduct, in its relations to social 
customs, is not merely negative. When harm 

is eliminated only half its work is 
uplift substituted, done. Its supreme task, in this 

immediate field, is to substitute, 
in the customs from which harm has been eradi- 
cated, such elements as shall uplift. " The way 
to empty is to fill. Empty of evil by filling 
with good. Drive out darkness by admitting 
light." 3 Christian conduct is to make custom a 
power to purify and elevate the world. By ex- 
hibiting the excellences of pure customs, by 
showing in actual operation the superiorities of 
customs stripped of every harmful element, such 

1 Matt, xxiii. 3-7. 2 1 Peter ii. 11. 

3 Strong, " The New Era," p. 244. 



THE SOCIOLOGICAL STATES 379 

customs as hold only uplift for the social world 
are substituted for all other. 1 Conduct, springing 
out of the psychical depths of Christian experi- 
ence, has upon itself the task of the introduction 
and establishment of the uplift of purified cus- 
toms in the social life of the world. 2 

Such conduct registers itself in the thought of 

men. It is not only remembered as a familiar 

incident, but it settles down in the 

state of character: b serv i n nr mind as a fixed state of 

Reformation. ° 

Christian character. It may be 
designated as the state of reformation. It is the 
state in which the active energies of the life are 
occupied in the reformation of social customs. 
It is the attitude of the Christian soul in which 
it insists that, in all moral phases, the customs 
of society shall be conformed, soon or late, to it- 
self as the organic expression of God's will in 
human action. It is a state of confirmed an- 
tagonism to all that is conceived to be wrong in 
the customs of society. The definite and accu- 
rate formulation of Christian character must 
give large place among the sociological states to 
this state of reformation. 

The action of Christian life on social structure 
goes deeper than the manipulation of accepted 
customs. Christian conduct penetrates to the 
basal elements of social organism. The very 

1 Matt. v. 16. * Titus ii. 7. 



380 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

organic institutions that form the framework of 
society become the immediate subjects of Chris- 
tian formulation. 1 Institutions, 
conduct: i^stiju- however time-honoured and deeply 

tions Remedied. -l J 

entrenched, that hold in themselves 
elements that are wrong to the acute sense of 
perception wrought by the processes of experi- 
mental salvation are at once and persistently 
the object of remedial action on the part of 
every genuine Christian. 2 The life wrought of 
God in the soul can never rest inactive under 
the abuses and disasters of erroneous institu- 
tions. It sets itself to rectify them. It applies 
itself to statutes and constitutions, stopping not 
short of the very foundations of governmental 
structure, that the institutions of society may 
be remedied wherever they are detrimental to 
the development of the largest and purest life. 3 

The life of the Christian is a life in its nature 

and social requirements distinct from all other 

ever known in the world. It has 

institutions found itself under the necessity of 

Created. *> 

creating new institutions, such in- 
stitutions as give protection to its peculiar 
powers and sphere for their exalted activities in 
the social relations. 4 Christian conduct, born 
of the work of God's Spirit in the depths of the 
soul, creates in the governmental world an in- 

1 Acts vi. 14. fl Acts xvii. 6. 8 1 Cor. v. 7. 4 Aots xvi. 21. 



THE SOCIOLOGICAL STATES 381 

stitutional environment in which men may 
have chance for the fullest exercise of the 
energies peculiar to and inherent in the life of 
the Christian. It creates a need for, and gives 
definite formulation to, institutions that differ- 
entiate Christian civilization from every other 
that has appeared upon the earth. 1 The whole 
face of society is being transformed by this ac- 
tion of Christian conduct upon its institutions. 2 
Christian conduct cannot exist, in its genuine- 
ness and potency, without continuously mould- 
ing to itself the institutions of its social world. 

Such conduct, steadily in action under the 

gaze of men, deposits in the observing mind 

another distinct state of Christian 

state of character: cnarac ter. It is the state compre- 

Reconstruction. -T 

hensively designated by the term, 
reconstruction, since it is formed by the conduct 
of the Christian in his slow but resistless mould- 
ing of the institutions of society to make neces- 
sary field for the functions and activities of the 
Christian life. This reconstructive function be- 
longs to all true vitality. Christian vitality is 
in harmony with this general fact in that it lays 
a moulding hand upon its social surroundings 
and ultimately readjusts all, forming a social 
body adapted to its nature and range. No com- 
prehensive formulation of Christian character 

^cte xxi. 21. *Eph. iv. 22-24. 



382 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

can fail to recognize this state of reconstruction 
as essential to the completion of the sociological 
states of that character. 

Christian conduct comes now to its final tasks. 

One of these is the exemplification of Christian 

citizenship by the embodiment in 

conduct : citizen- act i on f t h e elements of that citi- 

ship Exemplified. 

zenship which is commissioned 
and destined to bring the world to a complete 
social life. 1 It is the purified and adjusted inner 
life taking to itself perfectly correlated outer ex- 
pression in all of its social relations. 2 " The 
Christian citizen has a divine calling to spiritual- 
ize the secular and to Christianize the com- 
mon." 3 The citizenship that is to save the 
world here gets its type ; and such typical 
citizenship multiplied by the entire population 
gives perfect society in all its details. 4 Purity, 
courage, vision, aggressiveness, fidelity to vital 
details, sacrifice of personal interests for general 
welfare, these and other kindred qualities, which 
the limits of this treatment exclude from men- 
tion here, stand out in the conduct truly be- 
gotten of the Spirit of God, as set forth in the 
states of Christian character already considered, 
and unite in exemplifying the type of citizen- 
ship that is to save the world. Any so-called 

I FhiL i. 27. 2 Phil. iii. 20. 

3 Batten, "The New Citizenship," p. 186. 4 James i. 18. 



THE SOCIOLOGICAL STATES 383 

Christian citizenship falling short of that thus 
indicated demonstrates either a defective inner 
life or a perverted and misrepresenting outer 
expression by reason of ignorance of the true 
correlations in action or of insurmountable ob- 
structive limitations. Genuine Christian con- 
duct, informed and unobstructed, can have no 
other possible outcome than such an exempli- 
fication of Christian citizenship. 

In the experimental depths of the Christian 
soul is found the human birthplace of the 
world-redeeming ideals. God's 
ideals Diffused. plans are here transposed into 
human consciousness. In these 
psychical depths sublime visions are flashed be- 
fore human thought. 1 Christian conduct finds 
another of its final tasks to be the giving of ex- 
pression and diffusion to these ideals. 2 Great 
undertakings spring into daring endeavour. 3 
Momentous conceptions of coming realizations 
for man leap into the inspired utterance of 
human lips. 4 Souls, in whose being the won- 
derful processes of experimental salvation have 
been wrought, diffuse through the social life of 
the world those transforming and exalting 
ideals, now coming slowly into actual realiza- 
tion, that are destined to dominate the entire 

1 Acts ii. 17. 9 Matt. xiii. 33. 3 Matt, xxviii. 19. 

4 Rev. xi. 15. 



384 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

social relations of men. 1 True Christian con- 
duct can do nothing else than pour these ideals 
into the whole range of social life. It is the op- 
timistic vision of the life begotten of God break- 
ing out through every avenue of Christian con- 
duct. It pervades the social life of Christian 
civilization more and more, like the breaking of 
a heavenly dawn. 2 

Christian conduct is, in its very essence, the 
linking of ideal and power. 3 Where the ideal is 

God-given the power to apply it is 
power Applied. provided. " The religion of the 

future must not only supply an 
ideal, but also a power ; a power, that is to say, 
which shall enable men to rise towards the ideal 
presented to their gaze." 4 The conduct of the 
genuine Christian exhibits such an application 
of power by the effectiveness of the execution of 
the ideal. 5 Such conduct is a perpetual object- 
lesson in demonstration of the applicability of 
an accessible power, making its contacts some- 
where in the depths of the psychical being, 6 per- 
fectly adequate to the realization in the outer 
life of all the required correlates of the inner ex- 
perimental life, constituting such a complete 
citizenship as must, when at all generally at- 

1 Mark iv. 31, 32. 2 Rom. viii. 19. 3 Phil. iv. 13. 

4 Carpenter, " Permanent Elements of Religion," p. 282. 

5 Gal. ii. 20. 6 Eph. iii. 16. 



THE SOCIOLOGICAL STATES 385 

tained, redeem the entire social life of man. 1 
Furthermore, the conduct of the Christian is 
not only a demonstration but it is also a per- 
suasion. It never rests, as we have seen in the 
evangelistic states, until all others are induced 
to form the same psychical contacts in saving 
experience and to apply this power to the same 
far-reaching results. 2 " Thus there is opened 
to humanity the possibility of realizing for the 
race that golden dream of a social and political 
paradise, which has been attempted by unprac- 
tical dreamers, striven for by large-hearted phi- 
lanthropists, cried out for by the weary and toil- 
ing, but whose realization can never come through 
the efforts of man but through the power of God." 3 
So Christian conduct has set to it the final sub- 
lime task of effecting the application of divine 
power to the formation of such prevailing citizen- 
ship as shall, in its ultimate consummation, dom- 
inate the length and breadth of human society. 4 
Whoever witnesses such conduct, vigorously 
maintained in the face of all difficulties and dis- 
couragements arising from present 
state of character: con ditions in the social world, is 

Redemption. ' 

driven to a definite deduction, an 
enforced conclusion that here is another socio- 

1 Hfib.viiLU. 8 Col. i. 11. 

8 Carpenter, " Permanent Elements of Religion," p. 284. 

4 1 Cor. xv. 24. 



386 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

logical state of Christian character. It is well 
defined by the term, redemption, inasmuch as 
the final purpose of all conduct depositing it is 
the redemption of the social world from its 
wrongs and injustices in customs and institu- 
tions. This is the evident, settled assurance of 
the ever bettering transformations of existing 
social conditions. It is the demonstrated dis- 
position of the individual Christian soul to 
contribute every possible aid to lift society 
towards higher levels, having ever in sight the 
final glorious stage of social redemption. 1 It 
banishes forever every vestige of pessimism from 
the Christian life. No correct formulation of 
Christian character can omit this state. Among 
the sociological states it forms the crowning 
culmination of all. No more significant words 
could close this discussion of the sociological 
states than these concerning the cross of Christ : 
" We cannot doubt that it is capable of far 
greater results in the future than that which 
we can trace in the past ; for we are only now 
beginning to recognize it as a social and political 
force which is able to do for commonwealths 
and great societies of men that which it has 
done for individuals, to uplift fallen nations, to 
breathe hope into the weaker classes and races 
of mankind, to give a human heart to systems 

1 2 Peter iii. 13. 



THE SOCIOLOGICAL STATES 387 

of commerce and science and art which have 
seemed non-moral before, to abolish war, to 
blend the whole world into one." 1 

1 Freemantle, M The World as the Subjeot of Redemption," p. 26. 



VI 

THE EEACTION FEOM THE EXTEENAL 

The psychological functions of conduct in the 
Christian life are, generally speaking, three in 
number. These functions may be 
JgoUSS^ somewhat loosely defined as fol- 
lows : (1) To constitute the normal 
external vent and product of the psychical en- 
ergies and conditions active in Christian expe- 
rience. Without such outer counterpart, as the 
culmination and completion of the spiritual 
processes of the Christian life, that life would 
remain a mere fragment, imperfect, abortive, 
fruitless. (2) To deposit in the mind of the ob- 
serving world the states constituting the outer 
and effective character of the Christian. With- 
out the material that such conduct provides the 
mind of the observing world would be void of 
all that is essential to the formulation of the 
states of Christian character ; but with that ma- 
terial rational processes act at once and the ele- 
ments of Christian character take distinct form 
in the perceiving mind. (3) To react upon 

388 



I) 



agram- 



a 




• 51' VcrAvc»\ ; fVianftifrrfrfc 5 c<^Torv ofr 



, a »v 



THE REACTION FROM THE EXTERNAL 389 

the psychical states of the Christian in a way to 
strengthen them through the activity and exer- 
cise necessarily involved in such conduct, and 
so to evolve higher stages of attainment through 
developments, demonstrations and inspirations 
otherwise inaccessible. The first and second of 
these functions we have considered in all essen- 
tial detail in former chapters. It 
The Third only, now on i v remains to examine, at 

Here Considered. *J ' 

some length, the third function, 
the reaction from the external. 

The psychological study of the Christian life 
that fails to include, as a factor in the psychical 

states involved, the reflexes from 

Reflexes from ,-t , • /» i , 

conduct vital. the outer region of conduct misses 
a wide range of facts vital to the 
right elucidation and comprehensive portrayal 
of the phenomena it assumes to treat. With 
the careless observer these reactive effects are 
easily overlooked. They are subtle and elusive, 
like the ultra rays in spectrum analysis. Their 
existence and importance are the discovery of 
long and careful observation. When fully ap- 
prehended they form the very capstone in the 
far-sweeping arch of psychical facts constituting 
the psychology of the Christian life and char- 
acter. It is the purpose here to give these 
reflexes their proper recognition and appropriate 
rank of importance. 



390 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

We shall examine this reaction from two 
view-points. The first of these will be that of 
two view-Points: its structural effects on the psy- 

(i) The Structural i • i. <• i,« ... 

Effects on Psychical cnical iaculties or powers active in 
Faculties. the com plete life of the Christian. 

We are here introduced to most profound re- 
active results of Christian conduct. We trace 
that conduct as it returns, in its effects to the 
psychical area, whence it has arisen, and enters 
into the psychical processes fixing lines of action 
and shaping powers of being. The kind and 
degree of activity in conduct thus determines 
the nature of all subsequent psychical develop- 
ment. Rightly proportioned, well-poised ac- 
tivity can alone issue in balanced development 
of structure. One-sided, disproportioned ac- 
tivity, ill-balanced conduct reacts in warped, 
distorted development of the psychical faculties. 
The shoulders take on the stoop of their toil, 
the hand is shaped in muscle and 

Those Faculties -i , •• , i 

shaped. bone to its ever-recurring task ; 

but no more is this true than that 
the psychical structure is shaped to habitual 
conduct. Purity in word and deed gives ex- 
ercise to psychical powers in pure activities and 
the powers become shaped and set to pureness 
only. The faculties, in their very structure, 
grow into conformity to thoughts, choices and 
aspirations that are essentially clean. They 



THE REACTION FKOM THE EXTERNAL 391 

lose, if they have ever had it, all adaptedness of 
essence to action that is impure; they become 
fixed in very fibre to action that is strictly and 
spiritually wholesome in every quality. Effort 
for the salvation of the unsaved bringing, as it 
does, the psychical faculties into solicitous ac- 
tivities they take on the form of structure 
educed by such endeavour. Sensitiveness to 
moral peril, perceptiveness of spiritual worth, 
intenseness of saving desire become ingrained in 
the very substance of the powers themselves. 
Indifference to the danger and neglect of the 
moral welfare of others become practical im- 
possibilities to the very psychical structure. 
Solicitude for the spiritual well-being of others 
becomes an inherent quality of the psychical 
processes. Revolt from social wrong in out- 
spoken condemnation of it and active opposition 
to it gives bent to the psychical powers towards 
the purification of the social world. The powers 
become fitted in their very essence, by such 
action, to uniform antagonism to all of the evils 
of human society. The faculties take on sensi- 
tiveness to all social injury, aversion to social 
indifference, restiveness under social suffering. 

Thus in all phases of Christian conduct w r e 
find it to produce marked structural effects on 
the psychical faculties. In the light of this 
fact it is seen to be indispensable to the fullest 



392 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

life of the Christian that conduct be exact in 

its conformity to that kind of action as shall 

produce the right psychical effects 

Balance Given to J iL nL'^L • a. • i 

inner ufe. an d that this be maintained in un- 

varying uniformity. The symmet- 
rical evolution of psychical being can only oc- 
cur under the symmetrical reaction of conduct 
rightly adjusted and steadily sustained. All 
failure in conduct issues in corresponding defect 
in development. The outer life holds a hand 
of unmeasured structural possibility over the 
inner life. 

The second of the view-points from which we 

examine this reaction from the external is that 

of its functional effects upon the 

(2) The Functional . * 

Effects on Psychical psychical perceptions. JLntirely 
perceptions. apart from all structural results 

of conduct upon the psychical powers there may 
be clearly traced and defined distinct functional 
effects, effects manifest in the quickened intensity 
and perspicacity of the powers of spiritual ap- 
prehension. Conduct is possessed of a function 
to put the psychical faculties at their best. It 
keys the powers to an ever higher pitch ; it 
endows them with ever keener discernment. 
These effects naturally fall into two classes, and 
under such classification we will more fully 
amplify upon each. 

One form of these effects is found in intensi- 



THE REACTION FROM THE EXTERNAL 393 

fied convictions. Conduct holds an abounding 
energy of demonstration. It confirms conviction 
with ever-increasing corroboration. 
tio t M* ifled Convlc " Christ formulates this inevitable 
effect in the words : " If any 
man will do His will he shall know of the 
doctrine." x Activity in conformity to the truth 
so affirms the truth to consciousness, so intensi- 
fies the conviction by a resistless demonstration, 
that the perception of specific truth is made in- 
creasingly positive. The faithful doer of the 
Word always becomes a more intense believer 
in the Word. Conduct is thus found to be a 
profound intensifier of conviction, it having be- 
come such by crowding the truth to actual 
verification in action. " The sense of reality of 
the spiritual life depends, to a degree true of 
no other sphere of life, upon the ethical atti- 
tude." 2 Conviction of the truth becomes ever 
deeper and stronger under the verifying reactions 
from conduct. 

The other form of these effects is a clarified 
vision. Conduct is also found to possess a re- 
markable function of setting things 
clarified vision. i n their true relations to each 
other. It is a great producer of 
right psychical perspective. Misplacements and 
distortions are eliminated under the applied 

1 John vii. 17. 

"King, " The SeemiDg Unreality of the Spiritual Life," p. 133. 



394 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

activities of actual conduct. Misfits are dis- 
covered and true correlations are ascertained. 
Misleading and deceptive perceptions are cor- 
rected under the stern contacts of conduct. 
Under such progressive readjustments vision 
finds a clearer air and more unobstructed per- 
spective. The perception of spiritual things be- 
comes ever more mature, more penetrating, more 
distinct. Conduct is a merciless corrective of 
errors in psychical optics. It is fatal to vagaries, 
spectres, fanaticisms. It verifies directions, di- 
mensions, colourings. The psychical life derives 
from conduct a vision clear, accurate, far reach- 
ing. " Vistas into reality may open along the 
way of duty-doing which are hid from the high- 
way of theological learning." 1 The psychical 
life of the Christian is in imminent peril of dis- 
astrous hallucinations when devoid of the cor- 
rections, balancings and inspirations of its exact 
correlated conduct. But under the effects of 
such conduct that life is possessed of an ever 
clearer vision and the light of eternal verities 
breaks over all of its perceptions. 

We have thus seen that from the region of con- 
duct comes some of the most important and po- 
tent moulding forces shaping the psychical life 
of the Christian. Indeed, so positive are these 
effects that it may be ventured that an open way 
to a subsequent Christian experience lies along 

1 Peabody, " Jesus Christ and Christian Character," p. 38.] 



THE REACTION FROM THE EXTERNAL 305 

the path of this reaction on psychical states from 

external conduct. Even mechanical conduct, in 

conformity to Christian truth and 

Possibility in • • , l j i • i 

such Reaction. spirit, may lead up to psychical 
states issuing in the development 
of a definite inner experience. Observation of this 
process has led to a striking remark by a recent 
author : " Other times have first been taught 
the nature of God and then have turned to the 
service of man. It may be the distinction of 
the present age to reverse this order of religious 
experience and to rediscover the knowledge of 
God through the doing of duty. It may be that 
beyond the ethical renaissance of the present 
time there is waiting a revival of religion." l 
Such words may contain an overestimate of the 
reactive function of conduct, but they are at least 
suggestive of the important discovery that such 
a function exists and fills a large place in the 
psychical processes of the Christian life. 

In view of these facts it becomes evident that 
action and reaction are the alternative and re- 
sponsive processes by which the 

Action and Reac- /ni • .• !•/» i i 

tion in co-operation. Christian life becomes more and 
more substantial in its reality and 
expansive in its attainments. The energies of 
the inner, experimental life project themselves 
in conduct ; conduct, in return, strengthens 
these energies, verifies their accuracies, enlarges 

1 Peabody, "Jesus Christ and Christian Character," p. 29. 



390 STATES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

their proficiencies and expands their capacities. 
These increased psychical faculties again project 
themselves in still more effective action, receiv- 
ing back in return a reaction of still larger 
sequence to the inner life. Thus the life of the 
Christian rises in ever ascending attainment in 
experience, conduct and character. Action and 
reaction are the counterparts in the eternal prog- 
ress of this life. Eternity can but give wider 
scope and greater speed to this glorious ascent. 
In this study of the psychology of the Chris- 
tian life, its experience and character, we have 
now reached a final view-point, 
Future of christian w h ence we may ta ke an indubi- 

Life Estimated. J 

table estimate of the future of the 
life of the Christian in its experimental and 
practical aspects. Its psychical energies and 
processes are to become ever more definite and 
positive ; its regions ever more clearly mapped 
and its states unquestionably located ; its under- 
lying areas, throbbing with the exhaustless di- 
vine Presence and energy, ever more distinctly 
conceded ; its output in conduct ever more 
exact and uniform in its formulation ; its issue 
in character ever more reliable and resplendent 
in moral quality ; its reaction from conduct ever 
more stimulative of the highest possible attain- 
ment, until the one finite thing of superlative 
worth in the known universe is the life of the 
Christian. 



Index 



Abundance of response, 164 
Acceptance, state of, 148 
Acquirement of Christ-spirit, 191 
Actions, clean, in conduct, 332 
Activity, in conduct, 348 
Adequacy of reaction, 210 
Adolescent period, 233 
Adolescence, cause in, 233 
Adoption, 1 18, 151 
Advanced states entered, 147 
Advantage in nurture, 157 
Affectional functioning, 186 
Ahasuerus convicted, 90 
All to save, in conduct, 365 
Alleviation, in conduct, 372 
Ambition, state of, 350 
Answer by Scripture insight, 271 
Anxiety for souls, in conduct, 352 
Apologetics, basis of, 198 
Appeal, state of, 363 
Approximation to the Christ-spirit, 

189 
Area of correspondence, 185 
Ascending movement, 160 
Ascent, states in, 159 
Assent to the Gospel, 75 
Assimilation of material, II 
Augmentation of energy, 175 

Balance, by conduct, 392 
Balanced character, 320 
Basis of Apologetics, 198 
Benefits of Gospel, 201 
Bible history in apologetics, 199 
Bible study, in conduct, 330 
Birth by the Spirit, 115 

Cataclysm awaited, 88 
Cataclysmic states not normal, 149 
Character formation, 311 
Character, its forerunners, 311 
Character, personal states of, 323, 

328 
Chasm, a seeming, 88 
Cheer, diffusal of, 336 



Child at parting of ways, 77 
Child, apart from nurture, 77 
Child, under nurture, 77 
Child's vision of God, 76 
Christ-spirit, the goal, 189 
Christian life, forecast of, 396 
Christian life only under consider- 
ation, 7 
Christian states homogeneous, 328 
Citizenship, exemplification of, 382 
Clarification by conduct, 393 
Cleansing not forgiveness, 113 
Cleansing from sin, 112 
Concern for individuals, 353 
Conclusion from insight, 266 
Condemnation, its loss, 120 
Condemnation, its origin and ef- 
fects, 82 
Condemnation, only where sin is 

present, 146 
Conduct begets character, 318 
Conduct, its relations, 314 
Conduct, normal vent, 316 
Conferment of divine likeness, 291 
Consciousness, dawn of, 66 
Consciousness, interrelations with 

subconsciousness, 59, 64 
Consciousness, region of, 53 
Consciousness, degrees of, 48 
Considerateness, in conduct, 337 
Consistency, in conduct, 346 
Control of self, in conduct, 342 
Conversion most frequent in ado- 
lescence, 233 
Conversion remote from adoles- 
cence, 234 
Conversion, not inherent in ado- 
lescence, 234 
Conviction, at Pentecost, 91 
Conviction, its rise, 89 
Conviction, pivotal, 96 
Conviction, recent, 92 
Conviction, state of, 93 
Cooperation of action and reaction, 
395 



397 



398 



INDEX 



Correction of erroneous institu- 
tions, 380 

Cost uncounted, 364 

Counterpart, external, 298 

Covenant for service, state of, 101, 
147 

Co-working of God, 290 

Craving for infilling, 181 

Craving, without sequence, 183 

Creation of salutary institutions, 380 

Credentials of Scripture insight, 
252 

Critical study, dread of, 29 

Dedication of self and belong- 
ings, 102 

Dedication for higher service, 133 

Dedication modified, 147 

Definition of conduct, 316 

Deliverance of insight final, 282 

Delusions dissolved, 37 

Depravity, total, without extant 
evidence, 69 

Depths of God's word, 164 

Destructive methods, 30 

Devoutness, state of, 331 

Diagnosis of disorder, 252 

Diagrams of inner life explained, 48 

Diagrams of outer life explained, 

327 
Diffusal of ideals, 383 
Disobedience, its origin, 80 
Disparities in character, 305 
Distinctions in beliefs, 29 
Divine personality, 272 
Division of human being, tripartite, 

10 
Doubt foreign to child, 148 
Drawing to Christ, 359 
Dread of psychological inquiry, 31 

Ease of possession, 179 
Effort, cessation of, 105 
Elimination of harmful customs, 

378 
Enlargement of life, 184 
Entrance of power, 174 
Environment, modifying, 86 
Eradication of injustice, 375 
Evangelistic states, derivative, 35 1 
Evidence of insight, 250 



Evidences, vary in value, 203 
Exacter method, remedy in, 309 
Exactness of promise, 163 
Exaltation of salvation, 363 
Exhibition of power applied, 384 
Expansion of capacity, state of, 178 
Expansion awaiting response, 182 
Experience, clarified, 9 
Experiences, never identical, 86 
Experience, no required, 306 
Exposure of injustice, 374 
External, reaction from the, 388 
External, rise into, 298 

Facility indicates capacity, 180 
Faith, acceptance by, 104 
Faith, claim by, 134 
Faith, its assertion, 106 
Faith, response to, 109, 174 
Faith, without direct sequence, 

108, 135, 147, 174 
Faraday's attitude, 30 
Field of experience, 51 
Filial sense, 122, 155 
Fixed laws of subconscious forces, 

229 
Forces, subconscious, at work, 228 
Forging of links, 358 
Forgiveness for sin, ill 
Forgiveness for vacillation, 135 
Forgiveness, state of, 340 
Formalism, survival of, 273 
Formation of character states, the, 

3 11 

Formulation of external counter- 
part, 299 
Function of conduct, 388 
Functional effects of conduct, 392 
Future of Christian life, 396 

Gentleness, state of, 338 

Glory undimmed, 287 

God beneath experience, 206 

God, fullness of, 137 

God's presence unmodified, 287 

God, the Gospel's source, 76 

Gospel, the, use of term, 5 

Growth and progress, 160 

Growth in grace, 159 

Guidance in experience, 44 



INDEX 



399 



Handicap, self-imposed, 197 
Harmonization of general phe- 
nomena, 8 
Help for suffering, 371 
Hemispheres in character, 301 
Holy Spirit in the psychical field, 

275 
Holy Spirit, initiator of better im- 
pulse, 277 
Holy Spirit, alone regenerates, 278 
Holy Spirit, source of life and 

power, 2S0 
Holy Spirit, the transformer, 281 
Home, impressions of, 143 
Horizontal movement, 159 
Hypnotic action, results of, 246 
Hypnotic condition, 244 
Hypnotic suggestion, 244 

Identical states, 157 

Illumination, 72 

Impression of perception of God, 

230 
Impulses, an index, 187 
Impulse, primal, 70 
Impulses of child, 69 
Inability, concession of, 354 
Incapacity, alleged, 240 
Incapacity, very rare, 241 
Inclination to larger tasks, 176 
Increase of faith, 167 
Induction of character states, 314 
Inerrancy of history, 199 
Inferences, erroneous, 233 
Inference, availability of, 227, 249 
Inference ceases, 231 
Inference, study by, 222 
Inferences, admissible, 227 
Influence, state of, 360 
Infusion of uplift, 378 
Initial refusal to obey, 78 
Initiation by the Holy Spirit, 312 
Inner and outer life, correlates, 328 
Insight, Scriptural admitted as 

valid, 9 
Insight, open to test, 251 
Insight, reliability of, 264 
Inspiration, authority of, 7 1 
Inspiration, light of, no 
Inspiration, study by, 223 
Integrity, state of, 347 



Intelligence of faith, 168 
Intelligence of forces, 230 
Intensity of faith, 170 
Intensification by nurture, 15 1 
Intensification by conduct, 393 
Intent of return, 83 
Intercessation, state of, 356 
Interpretation of the Christ-con- 
sciousness, 190 
Intricacy of states, 160 
Invitation to accept, 361 
Irrepressibility of inner life, 297 
Irritation, resistance of, 341 
Issuance in conduct, 313 

Joy of cleansing, 120 

Joy of pardon for vacillation, 138 

Key to this study, 75 
Kindness, state of, 337 

Location of injustice, 374 
Loss of condemnation, 120 
Love's power, 187 
Loyalty to truth, 39 

Man, born child of God, 144 

Manner unruffled, 341 

Mechanism absent, 230 

Method fearless, 36 

Minuteness of single acquirements, 

191 
Miracles, credibility of, 199 
Mistakes, effect of on character, 306 
Movement in apologetics, 205 
Mystery not less, 43 

Need, search for, 334 
Need, supply of, 335 
New depth of love, 187 
Newness of life, state of, 119 
Nurture, earlier aspects of, 143 
Nurture, normal, 142 
Nurture, states under, 143 

Obedience, right to, 77 
Observation has limits, 70 
Old tendencies, rise of, 129 
Ordeal of new-born soul, 126 
Origin supernatural, 8 
Origin of conversion, 218 



4:00 



INDEX 



Origin of conviction, 217 

Origin of possession of power, 220 

Origin of disorder, 255 

Oscillation between victory and de- 
feat, 131 

Outer life, the, 303 

Overwhelming excellencies of 
Christ, 189 

Palliating condemnation, 83 
Parallel phenomena, 235 
Pathway to character, 328 
Patience, state of, 342 
Peace of rightness, 153 
Penetration progressive, 190 
Perception, ready, 66 
Persistence of faith, 171 
Personal states, elementary, 351 
Phenomena most involved, 215 
Phenomena of conversion, 238 
Pivotal stage, 131 
Place of convulsion, 85 
Pleading to receive, 362 
Possibility in reaction, 395 
Power, gift of, 136 
Power, possession of, 137 
Prayer in conduct, 329 
Predisposition to Gospel, 69 
Preparation needed, 207 
Problem of insight, 250 
Processes under conscious states, 

198 
Progress and growth, 160 
Progressiveness in conduct, 349 
Promise, application of, 105 
Prophecy, fulfillment of, 200 
Prospect in ascent, 192 
Psychological era, this, 34 
Psychological research, field of, 34 
Psychological standpoint, indis- 
pensable, 42 
Psychology, Christian, arrival of, 35 
Psychology, Christian, benefit of, 

Psychology, Christian, defined, 33 
Psychology, Christian, its mission, 

^ 35 

Psychology, Christian, its first task, 

64 
Psychology, Christian, its greater 
task, 198, 205, 211, 212, 225 



Psychology, Christian, its recep- 
tion, 35 

Psychology, Christian, material 
admitted by, 49 

Purity, state of, 334 

Purpose of this treatise, 87 

Questions answered by psychol- 
ogy* 43 

Range of affections, 186 
Reaction from the external, 388 
Reaction inadequate, 209 
Reception of Gospel, 67 
Recoil from scientific handling, 30 
Reconstruction of institutions, 381 
Redemption of society, 385 
Reduction in struggle, 176 
Reflexes from conduct, 389 
Reformation of customs, 379 
Regeneration, its place and process, 

"5 

Regeneration, its results, 121 

Reliability in conduct, 347 

Reliability of insight, 250 

Reliance upon God, 356 

Relief from sin, 255 

Relief of suffering, 371 

Relish for truth, 68 

Remedy in exacter method, 309 

Removal of injustice, 376 

Repentance, state of, 97 

Research, this book outgrowth of, 

11 
Resort to God, 355 
Resultants of divine origin, 292 
Return of good for evil, 339 
Revelations in service, 162 
Revisal of wrong customs, 377 
Revolt against social wrong, 37 1 
Right, moderation in, 344 
Rightness of heart, 152 
Righteousness, loyalty to, 345 

Sacrifice, state of, 366 
Salvation, personal, beyond value, 

29 
Science, technical psychological, 9 
Schooling in Psychology, 207 
Schooling, religious, 86 
Scientific method applied, 9 



INDEX 



401 



Scripture insight, reliability of, 250 
Search lor hold on others, 357 

Service, covenant for, 10 1 

Service, its revelations, 163 

Shaping of faculties, 175 

Sin, abandonment of, 99 

Sin, evolution of, 253 

Sin, fear of effects, 95 

Sin, how removed, 85 

Sin, how enters, 80 

Sin, its burden of guilt, 94 

Sin, its heinousness, 94 

Sin, its sense defined, 81 

Sin, return from, to God, 100 

Sin, sorrow for, 98 

Sin-induced states absent, 146 

Solicitude, state of, 353 

Soul entire, laid bare, 40 

Specialization, faith increased in, 
169 

Specialized character an error, 320 

Spiritual life, science of, in in- 
fancy, 45 

Standard, no accredited, 308 

States of character, deposit of, 315 

States of character, three series, 321 

States, in ascent, 159 

States, the antecedent, 66 

States, the cataclysmic, 85 

States, the evangelistic, 323, 351 

States, the personal, 322, 328 

States, the sociological, 324, 367 

States, their origin, 206 

States, under nurture, 143 

Structural effects of conduct, 390 

Study by inference, 222 

Subconsciousness, evidence of, 50 

Subconsciousness, region of, 56 

Subconsciousness, vital, 57 

Subconscious phenomena-clusters, 
216 

Succession of states, 86 

Suggestion, hypnotic, 244 

Superiority among religions, 202 

Supernatural defined, 8 

Supernatural factors unimpaired, 

285 



Surprise and yielding, 127, 156 
Survival of formalism and theism, 

273 

Tabulated testimonies, 86 
Temperament, its effects, 86 
Temperance, state of, 345 
Temptation, its advent, 79 
Tendencies, rise of old, 127 
Tendencies, rise of sinful, 156 
Tenderness in conduct, 338 
Theism and Christian experience 

distinct, 273 
Transformed by regeneration, 121 
Trend of being, 66 
Two methods of study, 222 

Unction, divine, 161 
Unction for service, 140 
Uniformity, effort for, state of, 132 
Uniformity of resistance, 139 
Unlimited energy, 177 
Unsteadiness, confession of, 132 

Vacillation, state of, 127, 156 
Vacillation, state of, rarely absent, 

129 
Vacuum, the call of, 181 
Variations in experience, 86 
Vision of character, 320 
Vital factors in tact, 293 
Vitality, increase of, 184 

Witness of Spirit in conversion, 

I2 3 

Witness of Spirit in unforfeited 

childhood, 155 
Wonder unabated, 286 
Words, pure, in conduct, 333 
Worship in conduct, 331 
Wrong, abstinence from, 343 
Wrong by others, ignoring of, 393 
Wrong, condemnation of, 369 
Wrong, opposition to, 370 

Yielding, upon surprise, 127 



IAN 4 19ff 



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